POLITICSGUATEMALA
Progressive outsider Bernardo Arevalo wins Guatemala vote
Published 11 hours agoPublished 11 hours agolast updated 2 hours agolast updated 2 hours ago
Bernardo Arevalo was up against former First Lady Sandra Torres. Guatemala’s outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei congratulated Arevalo on his victory and invited him to start the transition process.
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Bernardo Arevalo casting his vote
Bernardo Arevalo was a political outsider who recently made gains in the pollsImage: Sandra Sebastian/dpa/picture alliance
Guatemalan progressive presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo took a decisive lead in the presidential election on Sunday.
With about 95% of ballots counted, Arevalo garnered 59% of the vote, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
Outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei, who did not run, congratulated Arevalo shortly after the results were released and invited him to begin the transition of power once the outcome is formalized.
His rival, former First Lady Sandra Torres, received 36% of votes and had positioned herself as an ally of Giammattei in her third attempt at the presidency.
Who is Bernardo Arevalo?
Bernardo Arevalo is the son of former Guatemala’s first democratically-elected leader, Juan Jose Arevalo.
He ran on an anti-corruption platform and went from being an outsider to a frontrunner in recent opinion polls.
“We all have the right and the privilege to express our opinion to shape the future of the country,” Arevalo said after casting his ballot in the capital Guatemala City, according to Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre.
Guatemalans voted in the second round of the presidential election on SundayImage: Sandra Sebastian/dpa/picture alliance
Last month in the build-up to polls, police raided Arevalo’s party headquarters in a move he slammed as “political persecution.”
The Attorney General’s Office said that it was carrying out a court order from July 12 which suspended the legal status of Arevalo’s center-left party, over allegations of falsifying signatures when establishing itself in order to compete.
Just days before the presidential runoff, the Supreme Court of Justice granted a permanent injunction to Arevalo’s party, blocking the previous suspension order by the lower court.
The attorney general who ordered Semilla’s suspension had been previously added by the US State Department to its Engel list of “corrupt and undemocratic actors.”
Keeping an eye on results
Regional oversight forum the Organization of American States (OAS) said a team of 86 election observers was in the country to monitor proceedings.
“It is essential that citizens be able to express themselves freely with full guarantees and that their expressions be respected,” said Eladio Loizaga, head of the OAS mission in Guatemala on Saturday.
It could be some time before the results are certified. After the first round of voting in June, losing parties got the courts to intervene and order a review of precinct vote tallies, taking weeks for the results to be made official.
Guatemala is Central America’s most populous country, and as the region’s largest economy, it has been battling with widespread poverty and violence which has forced hundreds of thousands to emigrate over the past few years.
Fleeing poverty in Guatemala
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zc, kb/jcg (Reuters, AP, AFP)
