The anti-establishment fervor that is playing out early in the U.S. presidential race, upended the race for president in Guatemala over the weekend.
Comedian Jimmy Morales is the front runner going into Guatemala's Oct. 25 runoff after emerging from Sunday's election with about 24 percent of the vote, leading all candidates.
"I'm not the person with the most experience," Morales said after results rolled in, "but Guatemala today, what it needs now, is to believe in itself again.'
Morales' candidacy has been buoyed by a corruption scandal that has ensnared former President Otto Pérez Molina, his vice president Roxanna Baldetti and several members of his administration. Molina resigned office last week after a judge ordered him detained.
Morales vowed a fight against the corruption that has so angered Guatemalans they poured into the streets from all levels of society to call for Pérez Molina's resignation.
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"If we don't overcome corruption, there will not be money for health, there will not be money for education, there will not be money for infrastructure," Morales said in the post-election news conference reported by Telemundo.
The next closest candidates in the election were politician Manuel Baldizon, who was expected to follow Pérez Molina into the presidency but whose support eroded as the scandal unfolded and former first lady Sandra Torres. They were locked in a tight race for the second spot in the runoff.
In the U.S., the race for the presidency has been marked by an anti-establishment streak that has helped made reality TV star and real estate mogul Donald Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson the front-runners in a crowded Republican GOP field.
The anti-establishment mood also has been considered part of the reason Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. senator, former Secretary of State and former first lady, has seen her lead over Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders shrink.