Central America

Action against judge who prevents the officialization of electoral results in Guatemala

Photo: Prensa Comunitaria

July 10 |

Representatives of the Seed Movement filed this Sunday before the Constitutional Court (CC) of Guatemala a complaint against the resolution issued unilaterally by the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), Silvia Valdés, which prevents the officialization of the results of the first round of elections.

A national prosecutor of Semilla, Juan Guerrero, declared to the press media that with this legal action they are seeking that the election of last June 25 does not continue to be trapped and that the second round of elections can continue.

The run-off election is scheduled for next August 20 and Bernardo Arévalo (Semilla) and Sandra Torres (Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza) will face each other.

Guerrero denounced that the CSJ left on hold the awarding of public positions elected on June 25 and also the call for the second round with the two parties that obtained the highest number of votes in the first round.

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It held that Valdés “could not make a unilateral decision that was not supported by the rest of the magistrates”. The CSJ is integrated by a total of 13.

Based on this, they requested the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to officialize the results of the first round of the elections and that, as the highest authority in electoral matters, “take the decision to continue with the process designated in the provisional injunction”, he said.

The mentioned resolution was issued alone by Judge Valdes last Friday. Previously, the results were not officialized because nine political parties filed an injunction to review the voting records. This process was practically concluded and only detected changes in the order of 0.02-0.4 percent in the electoral result.

During these days, indigenous communities announced that they will mobilize if the electoral result is not recognized. This Saturday, hundreds of students marched in Guatemala City and demanded the courts to respect the popular vote.

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