Alvaro Colom, a businessman promising to end Guatemala's desperate poverty, was elected new president of the country Sunday, electoral authorities said.
With ballot papers counted at more than 96 percent of the polling stations, Colom, 56, won 52.7 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential runoff election, beating retired general Otto Perez Molina, said the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
"I was certain I had won," Colom, of the center-left National Unity of Hope Party, told reporters after the results were announced.
"When you have a good plan, when you stick to the principles and values of an institution you achieve success, even if you are up against many forces," he said.
Colom added that after taking office in January next year, he will first call all of Guatemala's political parties and social groups together to decide how the Central American nation, with 51percent of the population living in poverty, is to be governed.
In the first round of elections on Sept. 9, Perez, of the right-wing Patriotic Party, ended with 21.35 percent of the vote, while Colom scored 25.62 percent, making runoff elections necessary as neither of the top two candidates netted more than 50percent of the vote.
Colom, a textile entrepreneur, is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 14, 2008, for a four-year tenure, replacing Oscar Berger.
Source: Xinhua
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