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| Turnout | 53.76% (first round)  6.96pp40.37% (second round)  3.49pp | |||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in Guatemala on 7 November 1999, with a second round of the presidential elections on 26 December.[1] Alfonso Portillo won the presidential elections, whilst his Guatemalan Republican Front also won the Congressional elections. Voter turnout was 53.8% on 7 November and 40.4% on 26 December.[2]
Media owner Remigio Ángel González gave more than $2.6 million and free airtime to Alfonso Portillo's campaign,[3] which led to some political analysts to claim that the free adverts helped Portillo win the election.[4] After becoming president, Portillo appointed Gonzalez's brother-in-law Luis Rabbé to the post of Minister of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing, a post which included responsibility for overseeing the broadcast media.[4] The presidential election also established a pattern for the next 16 years in which the runner-up of the previous contest then went on to win.
- ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p323 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
- ^ Nohlen, p324
- ^ Rockwell, Rick and Janus, Noreene (2001), "Stifling Dissent: the fallout from a Mexican media invasion of Central America, Journalism Studies, 2: 4, 497 — 512
- ^ a b Domination of Latin airwaves has 'Ghost' scaring his critics Associated Press, 9 June 2002