A comparative study shows that Guatemalan women tend not to vote. This is especially true of those who lack education and live in rural areas.
The study was presented in Guatemala City on May 31, only a few months before the September presidential elections. It offers useful information while Rigoberta Menchú, the 1992 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and the only indigenous woman candidate since the Central American independence, is running for president.
Guatemala has among the lowest levels of voter turnout in Latin America (56.5 percent), notes a survey conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). The nonparticipation rate among uneducated women is the highest, reaching almost 70 percent in rural areas and almost 64 percent in urban areas. Among the women with some primary education, almost 55 percent do not vote. Even among women with some university education, the abstention rate is higher than among men with a university education.
The data shows that, in 2006, only 69.2 percent of Guatemala’s indigenous peoples indicated that they were registered to vote, compared to 78.2 percent of ladino (racially mixed) respondents. Moreover, 60.4 percent of the ladino population said they voted, while only 55.8 percent of indigenous respondents did. Almost one fourth (23.6 percent) of all registered respondents said that they lacked the motivation to vote.
Regarding Guatemalans’ political self-identification, the majority (around 51 percent) consider themselves near the center, about 22 percent left or center-left, and 26 percent right or center-right. A third of all respondents (31 percent) found it difficult to differentiate between the political right and left.
“Women, people with less education, and the youngest tend to have the highest abstention rates,” write the two authors of Cultura Política de la Democracia en Guatemala: 2006, Dinorah Azpuru, assistant professor of political science at Wichita State University, and Juan Pablo Pira, an independent consultant.
The report is based on a poll carried out in July 2006, which has been conducted every two years since 1993 in that Central American country. It provides more than a decade of data on Guatemalans’ political values, attitudes and beliefs. The study is part of a series of surveys by LAPOP’s AmericasBarometer, an effort to measure democratic values and behaviors in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults. The surveys are made possible with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt University.
The series is directed by Mitchell A. Seligson, Centennial Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. It covers 21 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America, including all in Central America.
Another worrisome finding is that around 70 percent of Guatemalans consider crime as threatening the future of their country. Crime and violence were identified as the most serious problems, even more serious than economic and social problems. Similarly, crime victimization increased from 13 percent in 2004 to 19 percent in 2006. Those who live in urban areas are more likely to be victims of crimes (25 percent) compared to those living in rural areas (13 percent). At the same time, Guatemalans’ overall perception of not being safe declined slightly, from 43 percent in 2004 to 37 percent in 2006.
Interestingly, Guatemala finds itself in an intermediate position vis-à-vis other Latin American countries when it comes to corruption victimization. Still, it is among countries with the highest corruption perception. Eighty-two percent of the population stated that they had not been victims of acts of corruption. But a large number of Guatemalans regard corruption among public officials either as somewhat or very pervasive. This does not coincide with the data on actual levels of victimization.
Even though Guatemala had very low voter turnouts, the percentage of people who preferred democracy still increased from 64 percent in 2004 to 71 percent in 2006. The study also found, by analyzing the levels of system support and political tolerance, that the possibilities for a stable democracy in Guatemala have improved since 2001.
Thus, since 2004, Guatemala has notably bettered its ranking when compared to other Latin American countries.
The publication and data are free to the public and can be obtained at www.lapopsurveys.org.
LAPOP, a project group in the Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt University, was founded in the 1970s by Seligson to conduct scientific surveys of Latin American citizens about their opinions and behaviors related to building and strengthening democracies. AmericasBarometer now covers nearly the entire Western Hemisphere.
For more information, contact the Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt University, www.vanderbilt.edu/americas or (615) 343-2818.
Media contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, (615) 322-NEWS
annmarieowens@vanderbilt.edu