Guatemalan Comedian Jimmy Morales Leading Presidential Polls
According to the latest polls, a comic entertainer named Jimmy Morales might be Guatemala's newest president.
As previously reported, Sunday, after a tumultuous week in which former president Otto Perez Molina stepped down from office and was arrested for his ties to a customs bribery scandal, Guatemalan citizens took to the polls to cast their votes for a new leader.
As reported by the BBC, Morales, who ran with the slogan, “Neither corrupt nor a thief," has taken around 24 percent of the votes counted so far.
His two major opponents, Manuel Baldizon, a businessman who has run for the presidency before, and Sandra Torres, the former wife of president Alvaro Colom, each have about 19.5 percent.
As was expected to happen, no candidate has taken 50 percent of the vote. This means that a second round of voting will take place on Oct. 25.
In an interview with Telegrafo, the comedian makes it clear that his bid for the presidency is no joke and that he does in fact actually have the academic skills required to do a good job.
“I have a degree in Business Administration from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, also a Masters in Economics and a PhD," he said.
Morales, who is running for a conservative party called the National Convergence Front, has no experience in politics whatsoever. But that has not stopped his momentum. His lack of political experience, in a country that is wary of public corruption, may very well have helped his campaign.
As reported in the Australian Broadcast News, Morales remarked that he was the only candidate not tainted by corruption. He attributes his popularity to hard work, saying, "I have earned a leading role through hard work, because the other candidates ran expensive campaigns to make their faces known."
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