Guatemala voting also hit by riots

 BY GLENN GARVIN

 GUATEMALA CITY -- What was supposed to be a showpiece of democracy --
 Guatemala's first peacetime election in more than four decades -- turned into an
 ugly mess Monday as a slow vote count triggered accusations of fraud and left
 doubt about whether front-runner Alfonso Portillo must face a runoff race next
 month.

 Portillo, a populist law professor, had 47.9 percent of the 1.5 million votes by
 Monday afternoon, slightly short of the majority he would need to avoid a Dec. 26
 runoff.

 But because the Supreme Electoral Tribunal refused to reveal how many of
 Guatemala's 7,502 voting precincts remained to be counted, it was impossible to
 say whether Portillo might be named on enough of the remaining ballots to win
 outright victory.

 Most of the cities where votes remain to be counted are in rural areas where
 Portillo has been piling up huge majorities.

 Portillo said he had won outright and is assembling his new Cabinet -- but added
 that he would be happy to face his leading challenger, former Guatemala City
 mayor Oscar Berger, if necessary.

 ``We are convinced that there will not be a second round but if they want another
 knockout, we'll give it to them,'' Portillo told a cheering crowd of supporters.

 Berger, who trailed Portillo with 31 percent of the vote, was more cautious. ``It's
 necessary to wait for definitive results,'' he said. ``Nonetheless, I think there will
 be a second round.''

 UNCOUNTED VOTES

 It could be days or even weeks before the question of the runoff election is
 settled. Not only are there an unknown number of votes still to be counted --
 political consultants and statisticians here guessed it might be between 300,000
 and 600,000 -- but Portillo's Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) party said it
 might challenge the count, alleging widespread fraud and manipulation.

 Electoral experts, while not necessarily endorsing the accusations of fraud, said
 there was plenty to be angry about in the way votes were counted.

 ``I'm furious myself,'' said political consultant Fernando Morales de la Cruz.
 ``Mistakes like the ones yesterday are so incredibly negative, not just for the
 electoral tribunal, but for the whole institution of democracy.''

 The electoral tribunal refused to release any results at all for the first six hours
 after the polls closed and issued its first report only after former President Ramiro
 de Leon Carpio all but accused the organization of fraud in a live interview on
 national television.

 ``I don't want to think anything wrong is taking place,'' Carpio said, ``but the rest of
 the population may be thinking something wrong is taking place.''

 Within 20 minutes, the electoral tribunal issued its first report. But even then, it
 reported results town by town instead of providing national totals. It also refused
 to provide written copies of the results.

 RURAL RIOTS

 The uncertainty over the count triggered riots in several rural cities, including one
 in the town of Chuarrancho, north of Guatemala City, where the city hall and the
 police station were burned. Two policemen and an election worker were injured in
 the fighting.

 ``This is not the fault of the electoral tribunal,'' said its president, Felix Castillo. He
 said the problems were caused by rain that fell in rural areas Sunday.

 If a runoff is necessary, several pollsters and political analysts said, Portillo will
 be the favorite. ``Portillo will probably win in the second round with relative ease,''
 said Costa Rica pollster Victor Borge.

 He said his surveys showed that about half the voters in the third place party --
 the New Nation Alliance, composed mostly of former Marxist guerrillas who were
 participating in a Guatemalan election for the first time -- would support Portillo in
 a runoff, easily boosting him over the 50 percent mark.