The second round election will be one of the most closely watched in recent times due to the difficulties and judicial interference that the process has faced and that have alerted not only the country’s citizens, but also the international community, which has denounced the risk that Guatemalan democracy is running.
The choice will be between former first lady Sandra Torres, who mutated from the center to the right and became an ally of outgoing and deeply unpopular President Alejandro Giammattei, making her third bid for the presidency. His opponent, Bernardo Arévalo, with the progressive left-wing Movimiento Semilla, rode the wave of popular resentment toward traditional politics. Arévalo achieved a surprising second place in the first election.
The latest surveys show that society is fed up with traditional politicians who, under clientelism, have come to govern corruptly and with impunity, according to experts, which has weakened the rule of law and imposed a perception of hopelessness in society. Proof of this is that Arévalo, in his first participation as a presidential candidate, has an advantage of more than double against Torres, in the preference of the electorate.
Sunday’s election marks the end of an electoral process that has been bumpy since its inception, with the exclusion by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the courts of justice of popular candidates who were favored by the electorate, of delays in the officialization of results due to legal actions by losing parties and the continued intention of the prosecution to block the participation of the Seed Movement.
The first round of general voting on June 25 passed relatively quietly until the results showed that Arévalo, who according to the polls was outside the top seven preference places, won second place. That society’s weariness with its politicians, analysts say, was what influenced young people, the largest electorate in Arévalo, to position him as far as he has come.
But reaching a second electoral round was not going to be easy. The losing parties and even the National Unity of Hope that promotes Torres joined forces to present legal actions and thus request a second review of the minutes that contained the vote count and that stopped the officialization of results. The second review confirmed the results.
It was then that the Public Ministry, just an hour before the results were made official, announced that a judge was suspending the legal personality of the Arévalo party, thereby preventing it from participating in a second round.
Judge Fredy Orellana ordered the suspension of the legal personality despite the fact that the Electoral and Political Parties Law that governs the electoral season prohibits it. Semilla obtained a provisional protection and later it was definitive and that ensures his participation. However, the prosecution has said that it will continue to investigate Semilla for allegedly collecting false signatures to register the party in 2018.
Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America and the largest economy in the region continues to struggle against the widespread poverty and violence that have driven millions of Guatemalans to migrate to the United States.
Torres and Arévalo have different visions of what Guatemalan society needs. While Torres, ex-wife of the former president who died in 2023, Álvaro Colom, appeals for conservative and religious values, she also offers social assistance and a reduction in basic basket prices.
Arévalo, congressman and sociologist, son of former president Juan José Arévalo (1945-1951 progressive) promises to combat the corruption and impunity that invades the country.
The political battle would not end with the election in the second round. Torres has appropriated the accusations of the prosecution and prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche that four days before the elections, he questioned the work of TSE employees who collect the vote count data for publication, saying that his investigation showed that four of 5,000 were affiliated with Semilla.
“We are going to defend vote by vote because today democracy is at risk… they want to steal the elections,” Torres said Friday at the closing of his campaign, paving the way if the results do not favor him.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
