In scanning the election news today, I was reading on BBC about the elections Sunday in Guatamala, and happened to read in the BBC story about the magnitude of election-related violence in that country:
Sunday’s voting, which was also for parliamentary and local elections, followed one of the bloodiest campaigns in the country’s history.
More than 50 candidates, activists and their relatives were killed.
As results came in, there were disturbances in several parts of the country, including in at least five communities where police used tear gas to disperse protesters, Guatemalan media reported.
That’s pretty remarkable, and as we are now completing the final round of edits to our new book on election fraud in the U.S. and abroad (edited by myself, Thad and Susan Hyde), I couldn’t help but remark that this shows a level of election manipulation not typically seen in many modern democratic elections, outright murder of activists, candidates, and candidate family members.
There’s a decent video on BBC as well, with a few shots of voting in Sunday’s elections, as well as screen-shots of the presidential election ballot (RealPlayer):