Guatemalans choose president after bloody campaign

GUATEMALA CITY, Sep 9 (Reuters) Guatemalans voted for a new president on Sunday in an election marred by the worst political violence since the end of civil war, with drug gangs and political rivals killing 50 people on the campaign trail.

The two top contenders -- right-wing former Gen. Otto Perez Molina and center-left businessman Alvaro Colom -- are unlikely to get the majority support needed for an outright win, and a November runoff between them is expected.

Perez Molina, a head of military intelligence during the 1960-96 civil war, gained on front-runner Colom in recent polls, capitalizing on the violence with his ''strong fist'' message against crime and corruption.

In a sign of just how split Guatemalans are, Daniel and Angelika Perez, who have been married for 50 years, said they were voting for different candidates.

''I am going to vote for Perez Molina because there is a lot of crime and he's a military man and is trained to give us security,'' said Angelika, 71, a retired teacher.

''Trained to kill people,'' interrupted Daniel, 73, a retired civil servant who supported Colom.

Long lines formed at polling stations in Guatemala City as people voted early to avoid the traditional afternoon rains.

The atmosphere was calm. At one voting center, election organizers played marimba music.

Army and police vehicles patrolled the streets, although only police were on guard at polling stations.

In the mountain Mayan village of San Juan Sacatepequez, 20 miles (30 km) from the capital, indigenous women in traditional bright-colored dresses voted, children dangling on their backs in slings.

''There is a lot to do here. We need drinking water, roads, schools because previous governments have done little,'' said Frederico Uleu Tum, 40, a construction worker with seven children who supported Colom in his third bid for president.

COCAINE CROSSROADS Guatemala, a crossroads for Colombian cocaine moving though Central America on its way to the United States, has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with almost 6,000 people killed in the country of 13 million last year. An inept justice system leaves most crimes unsolved.

A supporter of the death penalty, Perez Molina wants to use the army to patrol streets and also declare a state of emergency in areas overrun by drug traffickers and tattooed street gang members, blamed for a wave of grisly killings.

Colom, a soft-spoken former deputy economy minister, says a vote for Perez Molina would be a step backward into the dark days of Guatemala's civil war that killed close to 250,000 people.

A UN-backed report blamed the army for 85 percent of the war-era killings. Many of the victims were civilian Mayan peasants.

Alejandro Giammattei, the ruling party candidate of President Oscar Berger's conservative GANA coalition, is running third in polls. In any run-off vote, Perez Molina is seen picking up much of that support.

Colom's National Unity for Hope party lost 18 supporters in attacks during the campaign, more than any other party.

Much of the bloodshed has come from powerful drug barons trying to force their candidates into office. Guatemalans also vote today for a new Congress and for hundreds of local officials.

In the eastern part of the country, several suspected drug dealers are running for public office in a bid to gain control of key trafficking routes.

Other killings have been rivals shooting each other. None of the cases have been solved.

More than 1,000 people on Friday attended the burial of two activists from San Raymundo, a town north of Guatemala City. They were shot and killed while distributing leaflets for Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu's presidential bid.

Menchu, aiming to become Latin America's first indigenous woman president, trailed by a wide margin in opinion polls.

REUTERS TB RN0030