March Poll Numbers in Guatemala

El Periodico released March poll numbers today for the upcoming presidential elections. The results are based on a Borge y Asociados survey of 1,008 Guatemalans over the age of 18 between March 15-19.

In the encuesta, Otto Perez Molina of the Patriotic Party increased his lead over Sandra Torres, the governing party's candidate. The poll was carried out a few days after Torres was announced as UNE's official candidate, but before the brouhaha over her impending sacrifice for the country divorce.

Perez Molina is inching up on a first round victory over Torres and third party candidates are beginning to  lose their "lustre."

(More coverage can be found here, here, and here. From what I can tell, Menchu's support decline 0.1% (which means absolutely nothing), but several stories have it the other way around. I also haven't been able to get a more comprehensive read on the survey results anywhere.)

El Periodico also has a number of responses from the country's political parties to the recent poll results here. UNE wonders why the results do not match up with other surveys that has its candidate doing a little better and that they are also pleased with the 2.6% bump for Torres. They to comment on the other question where 47% of those polled said that Torres should get out of the race or the 56% that say she used public funds to advance her image.

The PP, on the other hand, is looking forward to a first round victory.Finally, the UP is surprised that a candidate from its party, Alvaro Arzu, is in third place. Arzu is constitutionally barred from running and divorce does not seem to be a solution to his problems.

I opined last week that Torres' numbers would probably drop to below 10% after her announcement that she and the president were getting a divorce so that she could legally run for president. We'll have to wait until April for those results.