The funny thing about politics

A couple of weeks ago, Guatemala went to the polls again for the second round of their presidential elections. But it was a very different experience compared to the first round. For the 6 months before the first round vote, the country was alive with political engagement, everyone talking about the elections, about electoral reform, and of course about the corruption scandals that have rocked the government and led to the resignation, arrest and imprisonment of the ex vice president and president. There were large scale peaceful protests in all the cities, as well as well-attended public prayer meetings infront of the government buildings.

There was a high turnout for the first round vote, which left the 2 most popular candidates for the second round vote a month later. Then everything seemed to die down and go quiet. In the second round, less than 25% of the population voted for one of the candidates. Many spoilt their ballat papers, many others stayed away altogether.

It´s seemed like in the first round, everyone was keen to vote to keep out their 'favourite' villain of the drama (there were plenty to choose from), but then in the second round, both candidates carried significant risks for the voters; one with well documented scandals in her political history, the other with no political experience at all - and only vague ideas included in his manifesto, but now surrounded on his political team by others who are just as stained by corruption and scandal as the other parties. So many people threw their hands up in dispair and just disconnected from the whole process.

The President Elect will come into power in January. It may be very different from what we have seen before. He is best known as a comedian (he starred in a popular TV sketch show with his brother for more than a decade) - not as a politician! On the other hand, it may not be very different at all.... his team are made up of political operatives with plenty of scandal between them. His party also has very few seats, so even with good plans and policies, he may have some difficulty in implimenting any of it.

Only time will tell.

At the same time, the court cases of the ex president and ex vice president continue, and every week there are more arrests of people involved in corruption in one way or another. Today it was 5 civil servants who had sold information to criminal organisations. The day before it was a money laundering network. They say that things have to get worse before they get better, as the bad stuff becomes more public, before it gets dealt with, but I wonder when it will turn the corner, and we´ll start to see some good news.?