Lawless Guatemala Electoral Campaign
Though there are still six months ahead of the official call for the Guatemalan electoral race and ten before the general elections, no one has questioned the illegal start-up of a full-speed electoral campaign.

First, there were billboards in several points of the city, then radio and TV announcements began circulating, and finally massive public acts began to be held, all of them with a common feature: unlawfulness, according to the current legislation.

Following article 193 of the electoral law, any related activity prior to May 3, 2007 is banned, however, authorities and politicians are no longer concerned about it.

Those in charge of enforcing the law unenthusiastically tried to stop the avalanche, but when the ruling GANA party joined the race, the magistrates of the Electoral Supreme Court chose for silence.

For the joy of advertising executives, polling firms, owners of radio, TV channels, and newspapers, the waste of money involving the elections began prematurely, in a country with so much poverty, inequality, and violence.

Daily advertising expenses so far amount to several million quetzales (local currency), and the campaign could cost between 15 and 30,000 dollars if done by a local firm.

Building an image that attracts the ordinary citizen is thus a matter of marketing techniques and money, two things that are practically limitless when designing electoral campaigns in Guatemala.