Chamber:
	Congreso de la República
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	12 November 1995
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the seats in Parliament in accordance with the constitutional reform of January 1994. General elections had previously been held in August 1994.
Background and outcome of elections:
	In August 1994, premature general elections for an 80-member Congress which was to serve until January 1996 took place. Constitutional amendments had been adopted the previous January; among other things, they reduced the Congress' membership from 116 to 80 seats and foresaw new general elections for November 1995. The exact polling date - on which presidential, legislative and municipal voting would simultaneously be held - was set on 18 May 1995 by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). Main contenders to succeed President Ramiro de Leon Carpio were Mr. Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen of the National Advancement Party (PAN) and Mr. Alfonso Portillo Cabrera of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). Among the 17 other candidates figured Mr. Jorge Gonzalez of the New Guatemala Democratic Front (FNDG) - the first left-wing contestant at this level in over 40 years. In August 1995, the leftist guerrilla coalition known as the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union (UNRG) had declared a two-week cease fire, beginning 1 November, to coincide with the elections, and had for the first time urged its mostly Mayan Indian supporters to vote rather than boycott the poll as before. In this context, the campaign and polling day - monitored by some 650 international observers - turned out to be the most peaceful in years and coincided with tripartite negotiations between the Government, the influential army (in power until 1985) and the UNRG. Final legislative results as released by the TSE on 25 November gave the centre-right PAN an absolute-majority total of 43 seats to 21 for the outgoing leader, the extreme right FRG; with six seats, the left, for its part, re-entered Parliament after decades of absence. In the presidential contest, Mr. Arzú ultimately won out in the run-off of 7 January 1996 over Mr. Portillo, who was widely regarded as a stand-in for Gen. José Efrain Rios Montt; the latter had headed a military government in the 1980s and was barred from running. Besides having called, as all his opponents, for a settlement of the internal armed conflict which has raged since the early 1960s, Mr. Arzú pledged to fight corruption and impunity, as well as give added support to the small and medium-sized businesses which are central to the country's economic development. He was sworn in on 14 January and the new Cabinet consisted mainly of PAN members, with some non-party technocrats.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (12 November 1995): Elections results
Voters	1,733,033
Blank or invalid ballot papers	188,169
Valid votes	1,544,864

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total	Gain/Loss
National Advancement Party (PAN)	43	+9
Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG)	21	-11
New Guatemala Democratic Front (FNDG)	6	+6
Christian Democratic Party (DCG)	4	-9
Union of the National Centre (UCN)	3	-4
Democratic Union (UD)	2	+1
National Liberation Movement (MLN)	1	-2

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	70
Women:	10