Comedian wins first round of Guatemalan presidential election

Jimmy Torres, the comedian who will lead Guatemala?

(Image credit: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images)

Guatemalans went to the polls on Sunday to pick a new president, days after the previous president resigned amid an investigation into fraud and corruption. The winner, results released Monday indicate, is Jimmy Morales, a comic actor who once played a cowboy who accidentally ended up president. The case of life imitating art isn't a done deal, though. Morales, 42, won just 24 percent of the vote, with 98 percent of results tallied, meaning there will be a runoff election on Oct. 25.

Morales' first place showing was unexpected. It's not clear if he will face conservative businessman Manuel Baldizón or Sandra Torres, a left-leaning former first lady, in the second round. Both of them earned just over 19 percent of the vote, and Torres is ahead by about 5,000 votes, but analysts expect a partial recount. Baldizón had long been expected to succeed disgraced former President Otto Perez Molina, and was leading in the polls until recently; his right-wing party supported Perez Molina up until days before he resigned last week. Morales, on the other hand, ran on the platform "Neither corrupt or a thief," and his lack of political experience is seen as a political plus in this anti-establishment moment. "The electorate has been searching for a political virgin, and that virgin is Jimmy Morales," economist and journalist Enrique "Quique" Godoy, tells The Wall Street Journal.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.