Monday night sees the Association of CEOs of Guatemala host their presidential debate at the National Theatre. Join us on Vozz for what is likely to be a fascinating hour as we live blog proceedings.

The top three candidates, Otto Perez Molina of Partido Patriota, Dr Manuel Baldizon of LIDER and CREO's Dr Eduardo Suger are likely to be grilled by a business community struggling to find a candidate for their interests.

We have just had the national anthem and the debate is about to start.

Moderator Jorge Gestoso is painting a fairly grim picture of the current state of Guatemala. A common theme that runs through this campaign is how tired the population is of feeling insecure and the impunity.

He ends on a positive note, that whoever wins has an historic opportunity to turn around Guatemala, as long as they can deal with the corruption and transparency.

Gestoso is now going through the rules of the debate. Televised debates have really caught on in Guatemala. It's quite embarassing to think how few there were in the UK's last election.

General Otto Perez Molina of Partido Patriota starts us off. He is big on stats, 6.6 million Guatemalans live in poverty. He continues the theme of being tired of violence, corruption and impunity. Perez Molina wants to make Guatemala an inclusive society, given that the problems the country face are the same in urban and rural areas.

There are a few, oft-repeated words in this year's campaign, Perez Molina manages to get most of them in with budget transparency, change, health and how poor infant nutrition is.

Doctor Eduardo Suger is second, seen as a candidate of the rich and intellectuals he also calls for "change". 

Having spent decades in the universities of the country, Suger has a difficult job to reach out to the majority of Guatemalans with only 3% going to university. Only 1% actually graduate.

The CREO candidate wonders why Guatemala is stuck in an agricultural economy, one that cannot compete with its exports internationally. 

Suger promised laws to promote organic agriculture, a new police structure and political change. He snipes at congress, complaining that there is a new social class of politicians that once they get there they don't want to leave.

This fits in with the political system, where a third of congress members change sides once they are elected. 

LIDER's Baldizon immediately invokes god in his first sentence and then launches into a short life story about his rural background.

He too wants to be all-inclusive with society, complains about the lack of control in the country and the insecurity this causes.

In full demagogue mode, Baldizon is playing to the national television audience.

The first question of the evening is about the shocking levels of childhood nutrition in the country that cause physical and mental problems. 

PP promise a 10% reduction in malnutrition if elected, Suger is initially confused about the format but responds with a highly scientific answer. An interesting balance to his calls for mother's milk to be the driving factor in the reduction of malnutrition. However, his calls for a National Development Ministry are laughed off by Perez Molina, who points out that without transparency, corruption would ruin it.

The second question concerns the security of the country.

Suger suggests that the PNC lacks operating capacity, an understatement that fails to match how other candidates are driving up the fear factor of insecurity.

Baldizon hits the spot by repeating narco-terrorism, organised crime and the safety of the borders. His idea is to swap the PNC for a new national guard of 25000, the concern for many Guatemalans will be is this actually change?

Perez Molina will keep the PNC but reform it, as well as the political system. The poor PNC is tonight's political punching bag.

The idea to create a national guard is questioned by the former General who wants to know how LIDER will pay for it? In a stunning development, Perez Molina clarifies that the PNC will get more money but the army will control the borders. Will this lead to a police state? Will Guatemalans notice the difference?

To combat fear Suger suggests intelligence, something PP also promote heavily in their government plan. As an ex-General it might not be such a surprise that Perez Molina suggests more soldiers will help. Q300 million per year will give 2500 new soldiers, allowing Baldizon to hit back with the same question - "Where will the money come from?"

The third question concerns the economy, specifically employment in rural areas.

LIDER are first up and suggest that rural tourism will increase jobs. However, this would rely on a safer Guatemala and the infrastructure to attract tourists. 

PP suggest that "green jobs" can be created in rural areas and they will support green entrepeneurs.

Next up is education, with so many kids unable to complete their schooling, Guatemala risks being left further behind as technology improves. The question here is what actions can be taken to keep kids in school?

With the majority of the country bilingual in some respect, Perez Molina suggests focusing on this and improving the communication between indigenous languages and Spanish speakers. Later English could be introduced to make the Mayans trilingual.

Suger, with plenty of experience on "his" questions wants to reform the system, starting with the teaching.

The debate is moving quickly, better moderated than others, especially those that have had more than one moderator. 

Security gets another question as the leaders are asked their plan to deal with Narco-trafficking and organised crime. 

Suger suggests that as a trillion dollar industry Guatemala is going to need help from its neighbours. Strangely, he decides to focus on heroin, when cocaine is normally seen as the drug that travels through the country.

As the former head of military intelligence, it is not a surprise that Perez Molina suggests that fighting narco-trafficking will require the creation of a national intelligence agency, similar to the NSA.

Laughter erupts in the room as Baldizon's offer of an extra-payment is shot down by Perez Molina who claims this would cost jobs. He suggests that he too would like a bono-15, 16, 17 and 18!

The moderator is laying down the law to quieten enthusiastic supporters in the crowd who are desperate to clap at the end of soundbite.

Moving on, eventually, Gesopo wants to know how the candidates will ensure the independence of congress. Given many parties are actively looking at political reform, the checks and balances of the system do not appear to be working. Suger wants to combat nepotism in Congress, with three generations of some families in it, good luck!

How will you defend the rights of women asks Gesopo? Suger suggests that family counselling will help in many cases.

For the final 30 minutes we are moving to a "rapid fire" round of questioning.

A fascinating question about changing the constitution to allow a second or more term for presidents and vice-presidents. Baldizon is not in favour of this, not a surprise given that this has caused a coup in Guatemala's neighbours, Honduras.

Some great questions coming in, now it is whether the sales tax - IVA, should be increased. Perez Molina thinks the tax base can be changed instead, not surprising given Guatemala's is lower than Haiti's! Suger agrees, it will be interesting to see who will shoulder the burden with a taxation increase.

When asked if Guatemala is a narco-state, Suger thinks that it can avoid it if the country faces up to its problems now. Baldizon believes it is a failed state but not a narco-state which seems to be a semantics battle. Perez Molina is the most optimistic, emphatically denying it is a narco state and claiming that the country can recover.

All candidates think that a large percentage of revenue generated by mines should be reinvested in local communities, They only differ on the percentage.

The three candidates have been given two minutes each to give their closing address. The party supporters take this opportunity to ignore Gesposo's please for constraint and cheer loudly.

Who won is difficult to say. Perez Molina used a mixture of repetitive keywords and statistics to effectively make his point. Suger's answers contained a lot of content but were not accessible to many voters and Baldizon's fiery rhetoric was tempered by Perez Molina's effective comebacks.

Perhaps the biggest takeaways are the PP's plan to give control of the borders to the army. The effect this would have on tourism is something that was not discussed.