New president in Guatemala

Conservative businessman Oscar Berger yesterday won Guatemala's second presidential election since the end of a 36-year civil war, returning power to the country's traditional landed elite.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal gave Berger 56 per cent support with results in from more than 70 per cent of polling stations and its chairman, Oscar Bolanos, declared "the trend is now unchangeable".

Berger, a 57-year-old former Guatemala City mayor backed by the country's farming and banking power brokers, beat Alvaro Colom, a textile factory owner and leftist politician, who trailed with 44 per cent of the vote.