[1] The ruling Institutional Democratic Party's presidential candidate was General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García, an army officer whose running mate was Mario Sandoval Alarcón, the long-time leader of the far-right National Liberation Movement.

The National Opposition Front's candidate was also an army officer, General Efraín Ríos Montt, whose running mate was economist Alberto Fuentes Mohr.

After the National Opposition Front led the first counts on election night, the government stopped releasing further updates and several days later declared that Laugerud had won by about 71,000 votes.

According to many independent observers, this result was fraudulent, and Ríos had actually received a clear majority of the votes.

[5] The Congressional elections were also won by the alliance of Laugerud's Institutional Democratic Party and Sandoval's National Liberation Movement.