Former comedian Jimmy Morales has been elected as Guatemala President. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported that Morales got about 72 percent of the votes.
The runoff was held a month and a half after President Otto Perez Molina resigned and was jailed in connection with a corruption scandal.
An estimated 7.5 million people were eligible to vote in the second round.
The headquarters of Morales’ National Convergence Front (FCN) party erupted in a celebration with live music and dozens of early revelers.
Morales parlayed his high name recognition to become a public face of the anti-corruption protests, using social media and other platforms favored by the demonstrators to ally himself with the cause.
The scandal, the worst in a string of recent corruption cases, has created an unprecedented climate of outrage in Guatemala, an impoverished Central American country torn by gang violence and still recovering from a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.
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Guatemala is one of Latin America’s poorer countries. It’s also a haven for drug traffickers and has the world’s fifth-highest homicide rate (per UN data).
