General elections were held in Guatemala on 7 March 1982.Ángel Aníbal Guevara, hand-picked successor of previous president Romeo Lucas García, was declared the winner of the presidential election and was scheduled to take office on 1 July. However, the election was widely denounced as fraudulent by elements on both sides of the political spectrum and an army-led coup d'état on 23 March instead installed the three-man junta of General Efraín Ríos Montt, General Horacio Maldonado Schaad, and Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez.
Voter turnout was 45.83% in the presidential election.
¹ The Popular Democratic Front was an alliance of the Institutional Democratic Party, the Revolutionary Party and the National Unity Front.
² the National Opposing Union was an alliance of Guatemalan Christian Democracy and the National Renewal Party.
³ Of the nine seats won by the UNO, seven were taken by Guatemalan Christian Democracy and two by the National Renewal Party.