Opposition candidate claims victory in Guatemalan presidential election

                  GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- A politician who admitted killing two
                  men during a brawl at a party in the 1980s claimed victory Monday in
                  Guatemala's first peacetime presidential election in four decades.

                  Hard-liner Alfonso Portillo was running just short of the 50 percent
                  needed to win outright.

                  Portillo ran on a populist platform, his candidacy overshadowed -- but
                  perhaps also strengthened -- by his ties to former dictator Gen. Efrain Rios
                  Montt and by his admission that he killed two men in Mexico and then fled
                  to avoid prosecution.

                  Portillo, who delivered a victory speech Monday with Rios Montt at his
                  side, said he was prepared to go to a second-round runoff if necessary, and
                  pledged to cure "an economy near collapse and a society fraught with
                  inequalities."

                  He has promised to combat crime, tax the rich
                  and heal the resentments of the country's
                  36-year civil war, which left an estimated
                  200,000 people dead before it ended in 1996.

                  "I am a common man, and now that I have won the elections, my
                  commitment is to the downtrodden," Portillo said Monday.

                  With about 80 percent of the ballots from Sunday's vote counted, Portillo
                  had 48 percent compared to 31 percent for Oscar Berger of the ruling
                  National Advancement Party. If no candidate wins an outright majority, a
                  runoff will be held December 26.

                  The candidate of the former guerrillas, Alvaro Colom, was running third with
                  12 percent -- well above the 7 percent he had been expected to capture.
                  Eight candidates divided the remaining votes.

                  The voting Sunday was quiet, with no signs of the heavy military presence
                  that marked past elections. The Electoral Tribunal estimated that about 2
                  million of the 4.5 million registered voters had gone to the polls.

                  The Clinton administration congratulated Guatemala on Monday for its
                  handling of the first presidential election since 1996 peace accords.

                  "By all accounts, the election was free and fair," said State Department
                  spokesman James Rubin. "We congratulate the people of Guatemala ... for
                  demonstrating their courage and their commitment to civic duty and
                  democracy."

                  Portillo is backed by the Guatemalan Revolutionary Front, founded by Rios
                  Montt, whose early-1980s regime was marked by some of the worst human
                  rights abuses committed during the civil war. Rios Montt was deposed by his
                  fellow officers after 17 months.

                  Human rights groups fear that Rios Montt -- who was barred from running
                  for president because he once led a military coup, but gained a seat in
                  Congress on Sunday -- would be a powerful influence in a Portillo
                  administration. But Portillo has said he would be his own man as president.

                  Portillo's candidacy appeared in danger when he admitted killing two men in
                  Mexico 17 years ago during a brawl at a party, and then fleeing to avoid
                  prosecution. He said he acted in self-defense, then fled because he had no
                  chance for a fair trial in Mexico.

                  He managed to turn the incident to his political benefit, telling voters that a
                  man who defends his life will defend the lives of his people.