Guatemala: Election Results are Official, but Arévalo Coalition Suspended

After unjustifiably keeping the results of the first round of the presidential elections  unknown for three weeks, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala made them official this Wednesday, for which reason Sandra Torres, of the National Unity of Hope, and Bernardo Arévalo, of the Seed Movement, go to the second round, scheduled for August 20, not obtaining an absolute majority.

Shortly before the results were made official, it was also revealed that at the request of the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity of the Public Ministry (MP), the Seventh Criminal Court ordered the suspension of the legal personality of the Movimiento Semilla party, affirming that the signature of one of its members had been forged, in addition to the fact that 12 deceased were also among its members.

Such facts mean that Arévalo will have an electoral campaign without the official support of Semilla, which also has the election of 23 deputies on hold.

Undoubtedly, everything is part of the obstacles to the only candidate whose main flag is the fight against corruption.

REMINDER

When Sandra Torres fraudulently lost in the second round of the Guatemalan presidential elections to the immoral Jimmy Morales in 2015 and the hyper-corrupt and now outgoing president, Alejandro Giammattei, in 2019, no one cared to the demands of the winner in the first round in both times about some other electoral review.

Now Torres, who has drifted to the right and already a wealthy businesswoman, after winning again in the first round, earned the attention in her request to search for fraud in the vote count.

The aim, mischievous, is to eliminate the other candidate for the presidency in the second round, Bernardo Arévalo, from Semilla group, whose flag -I repeat- is the fight against corruption, something that has made the ruling platform's hair stand on end, mainly the Executive branch.

Quite secretly, Giammattei, and other international entities, like the discredited Organization of American States have become concerned about the holding of the second round on August 20, but they did not question the electoral and judicial authorities that indistinctly delayed the process, mocking the Guatemalan people.

Therefore, they kept the supporters of today’s suspended Semilla on edge in order to violently and justify the intervention of the police and the army.

NECESSARY, BUT DIFFICULT

In Guatemala, an anti-corruption commission sponsored by the United Nations had worked on the problem that has aggravated the situation of the people so much, by not addressing the core problems. But after an initial success, everything diluted and efforts in this regard were ineffective, emerging modalities in which rulers and gang members joined hands.

Thus, it’s not difficult to think that the efforts in this sense are fruitful, when, for example, at this time the judicial authorities have been accomplices of those who try to annul or hinder or eliminate one of the applicants, to replace him with someone from the "establishment". ” corrupt.

In an interview with Prensa Libre, political scientist and jurist Daniel Novato, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (Idea, in English), denounced that "it has been a hyper-judicialized electoral process, with manipulation of the entire justice system to gradually exclude those candidates who could represent a risk to the corrupt pact. And so Telma Cabrera left, then Roberto Arzú and also Carlos Pineda.

“Under these conditions, he went to an election day that generally took place with various incidents, but which was characterized by a 40% abstention rate. In that it was similar to the level of abstention that in the first round 2019, but with the addition that there were 24% between null votes and blank votes. In other words, almost two thirds of Guatemalans either did not go to vote or annulled or left it blank, and that is a very strong wake up call for the entire Guatemalan political system, ”he snapped.

ALERT

Undoubtedly, this and other expert opinions, also common sense, warn that a judicial manipulation that would end up placing a candidate other than those who received the most votes last 25, would cause a problem of proportions, that only a brutal repression could cut short, and only for a while.

All these elements show that the Guatemalan political system is going through a crisis of legitimacy. Hence the imperative and urgent need to take advantage of this second round, which is disputed with all the guarantees. Here, the highly discredited Supreme Electoral Tribunal will have to demonstrate fairness in the electoral competition and give guarantees so that results of that second round are unquestionable, transparent, and that whoever wins has all the legitimacy of origin.

But, the suspension of Semilla, in order to weaken Arévalo's aspirations, shows that it is a matter of keeping the corrupt shielded, which would deepen the political crisis.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff