JIMMY MORALES’S previous political campaign ended in disappointment. In 2011 he finished third in a race to become mayor of Mixco, winning just 13,000 votes in a town of 700,000 people. His latest attempt was more successful: on October 25th he was elected Guatemala’s president, trouncing his rival, Sandra Torres, in a run-off with nearly 70% of the vote.

Until recently, Mr Morales (pictured) was known as a television comedian, not a politician. Alongside his brother Sammy, he was the star of “Moralejas” (“Cautionary Tales”), a weekly show lampooning Guatemalan stereotypes. In one episode Mr Morales played Neto, a country bumpkin who inadvertently becomes president. In another sketch, he and Sammy tell of crossing the United States border dressed as a cow, but turning themselves in to escape an amorous bull. “I’ve made you laugh for 20 years,” he recalled during his real-life campaign. “I promise that if I’m president, I won’t make you cry.”

Guatemalans have reasons to be upset. In April details emerged of a racket at the customs agency, in which officials received kickbacks in exchange for reducing import duties for companies. The scandal triggered months of demonstrations against the government, which culminated in September in the resignation and arrest of the president, Otto Pérez Molina. Guatemala also suffers high rates of malnutrition and crime, and its schools are lousy.

Mr Morales, who proclaimed himself to be “neither corrupt, nor a thief”, owes his election to revulsion against the political elite. When rivals taunted him for his inexperience he replied that his lack of political connections made him the right person to tackle corruption. He promised to extend from two years to six the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, a United Nations-backed investigative team that uncovered the customs scandal, and said he would retain the attorney-general, Thelma Aldana, who has led the prosecution of the ex-president. Mr Morales also pledged to provide more funding for the justice ministry, make government spending more transparent and audit government agencies.

Beyond that, his plans are vague. His manifesto was a scant six pages long. In place of a programme, he offered voters folksy charm. He began stump speeches with a booming, “How are you doing, Guatemala?” and rode a Vespa to his final rally.

A “Christian nationalist”, he opposes abortion, same-sex marriage and the legalisation of narcotics, as do many Guatemalans. Some of his other ideas are just wacky: he wants to give a smartphone to every child and to outfit teachers with GPS trackers to ensure they turn up to work. Mr Morales has promised to cut red tape and taxes, though lower rates seem less urgent than an overhaul of how taxes are collected. (Often, they are not.) As a share of GDP, revenues from tax are among the lowest in the world.

The composition of his cabinet will suggest what kind of president he intends to be. Will he hire technocrats with the expertise he lacks, or surround himself with cronies? He is said to be sounding out four main groups: evangelical churches, big business, academics from the University of San Carlos (whose ex-chancellor, Jafeth Cabrera, will be the new vice-president) and former members of the army.

Mr Morales’s ties to the military, which committed atrocities during a decades-long civil war that ended in 1996, worry some Guatemalans. His party, the National Convergence Front (FCN), was formed in 2008 by former officers. Retired generals could soon be pulling the government’s strings, says Anita Isaacs, professor of Latin American politics at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. The president-elect denies that the military has had any influence on his campaign.

However he formulates his policies, he will have trouble pushing them through Congress, where the FCN won just 11 of 158 seats. That will force him to seek support from other parties, which may be less keen than he is on stamping out corruption. His honeymoon with voters will be short. “They will demand results from the first month,” says Eduardo Stein, a former vice-president. Protest groups have organised a demonstration for January 14th, the day Mr Morales takes office. If the comedian-turned-president fails to clean up government, laughter will quickly turn to tears.