CONSERVATIVE candidate Alejandro Giammattei won Guatemala’s presidential runoff Sunday with a decisive lead over his rival, according to preliminary results from the Supreme Electoral Court (STE).

With 84 percent of the votes counted, Giammattei, of the Vamos (Let’s Go for a Different Guatemala) party, garnered 59 percent of the ballots, or 1,650,976 votes.

Former first lady Sandra Torres, the candidate of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party, trailed with 40 percent of the ballots, or 1,120,909 votes.

Giammattei said he hoped he could make changes to a controversial migration deal the Central American country signed with the U.S. administration last month.

Giammattei said he wanted to see what could be done to improve the deal that outgoing President Jimmy Morales agreed to stem U.S.-bound migration from Central America.

Giammattei will not take office until January, by which time Guatemala may be under severe pressure from the deal that effectively turns the country into a buffer zone, by forcing migrants to seek refuge there rather than in the United States.

“I hope that during this transition the doors will open to get more information so we can see what, from a diplomatic point of view, we can do to remove from this deal the things that are not right for us,” Giammattei said.

(SD-Xinhua)