The candidate Bernardo Arévalo leads with 43% the intention to vote for the presidential run-off on August 20 in Guatemala against former first lady Sandra Torres (28%), according to a poll released this Wednesday.
The CID Gallup and Fundación Libertad y Desarrollo survey also shows that 67% reject the attempts of the Prosecutor’s Office to disqualify the Semilla de Arévalo party, which gave surprise in the first electoral round, since it did not appear as a favorite in previous polls .
22% of those consulted stated that they will not vote for either of the two candidates, both Social Democrats, and 7% intend to annul the vote.
When considering only valid votes, Arévalo has 63% voting intention and Torres 37%, according to the survey presented at a press conference.
Likewise, 40% of those surveyed consider that the son of the reformist president Juan José Arévalo (1945-1951) has the capacity to solve the country’s problems, against 24% of Torres.
In the first round of June 25 there were 17.38% null votes, more than the percentage of any candidate. Torres obtained 15.86% and Arévalo 11.77%, according to the official count.
The study was carried out between July 18 and 27 with 1,242 face-to-face interviews throughout the country and a margin of error of 2.8%.
The path to the ballot has been turbulent due to actions by the prosecution against Semilla, which still threaten to leave Arévalo out of the race for allegedly committing irregularities in its formation in 2017.
In addition, 76% of those consulted assured that Guatemala is on the wrong path with the right-wing president Alejandro Giammattei and 62% consider his management bad or very bad.