Guatemala candidate Arevalo asks top court to pave way for presidential runoff

Issued on: 10/07/2023 – 00:20

Arevalo, who according to published results finished second in last month’s first round of voting, said his party had filed a motion to the Constitutional Court, asking it to overrule a decision to halt validation of the June 25 election.

Sandra Torres, another social democrat, finished in first place, but several right-wing parties asked for a review of the vote, citing irregularities.

The Constitutional Court granted the review, sparking international condemnation from election observers and the United States, European Union and the Organization of American States, over the possible undermining of democracy.

The court-ordered review finished on Thursday, and confirmed that Torres and Arevalo had come in first and second place.

However the lower Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) — in a declaration signed only by the panel’s president Silvia Valdes — ordered election authorities to not yet validate the results.

Arevalo, in his motion, requested that the CSJ’s order be annulled and that a criminal investigation be opened against Valdes for possible “abuse of authority.”

On Saturday, the deadline elapsed for challenging the first-round results, and Torres also asked the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to validate the outcome and pave the way for the runoff.

“If we adjust to the deadlines set by the Constitutional Court, today the Supreme Electoral Tribunal must make official the two parties that are going to the second round,” Torres said in a press conference.

Torres is the ex-wife of former president Alvaro Colom and Arevalo is the son of reformist former president Juan Jose Arevalo.

In the June 25 elections, Torres won 15.86 percent of the vote and Arevalo garnered 11.77 percent, the highest totals among the 22 candidates.

If the runoff is locked in, it would set Guatemala up to have its first president from the political left in more than a decade.

(AFP)