Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

On 14 January 2008 Álvaro Colom was sworn in as the new president. For the first time in 20 years, a social democrat was elected president. As the political analyst Edelberto Torres-Rivas said in 2004, “if Guatemala can experience a change of power from a conservative to a social democratic party and this process is implemented peacefully and accepted countrywide, democracy in Guatemala is well established”. With the general elections of November-December and the peaceful power transition this now seems to be the case.

Last year people were worried about a ‘Mexican situation’ that might occur after the elections, referring to the political stalemate in Mexico when the opposition leader López Obrador did not accept his narrow defeat in the 2006 presidential elections. Guatemalan democracy, however, has shown an increasing maturity recently.


Rural areas

[Indigenous people congratulate president Colom] First, changes of the electoral law have shown positive results during the recent electoral process. For the first time in Guatemala’s democratic history people from rural areas had a decisive say in the outcome of the elections. The reforms have stimulated political parties to become politically active nationwide, rather than just in the urban areas. The electoral reforms have also led to increased transparency in party financing.


Hand-over

A second positive development has been the peaceful and co-ordinated hand-over of power between the defeated and victorious party. In the past Guatemalan governments have never been re-elected. New leaders had to start from scratch without the knowledge, experiences and lessons learned of their predecessors, implementing their own new policies and procedures.

This time the outgoing conservative government was willing to work constructively with the social democratic newcomers to ensure continuity in important policy areas and to share their views about the political and socio-economic state of the country.

The discussions, which were facilitated by NIMD, allowed the new government to obtain a clear overview of the implemented policies and their results. Some of them will be continued by the new government. This peaceful handover has contributed significantly to the country’s governability.


Crime

Notwithstanding these positive developments, democracy in Guatemala still faces major challenges. One of the main obstacles for the functioning of democracy is widespread violence. The country has one of the world’s highest murder rates and a rather poor conviction record.

The recently established International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) is an important first step to tackle this problem but crime and insecurity will remain the greatest challenge for president Colom. His new government has to show results shortly because the violence seriously affects the daily lives of all men and women in Guatemala.


Few women

Another area of improvement is the participation of women and indigenous people in politics. Although at local level their number has increased significantly, they remain underrepresented at national level. President Colom has acknowledged the low number of women and indigenous people in his government but has promised to balance this when appointing the rest of his administration.

Looking back at the recent transition of power the various political parties have shown that they take the functioning of the democracy at heart and that they are aware that they – as political parties – have a joint responsibility in this.

- Article by Heleen Schrooyen NIMD programme officer Latin America and Doris Cruz, NIMD field representative in Guatemala –