In Guatemala a court has suspended Movimento Semilla, the party of centre-left presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo, arguing that there would have been irregularities in the registration of over 5,000 members. Arévalo had finished second in the first round of the presidential elections of 25 June, on which international attention had focused due to the risk that they could push the country towards an even more authoritarian political system.
In the first round, Arévalo had taken just under 12 percent of the vote, and on August 20 he should go to a runoff against Sandra Torres, leader of the center-left National Unity for Hope (UNE) party and ex-wife of Álvaro Colom Caballeros, president of the Guatemala until 2012. In third place came Manuel Conde, expressed by the party of the current president Alejandro Giammattei (Vamos, conservative), who cannot be re-elected because the Constitution prevents the incumbent president from running again.
Shortly after the court’s decision, the electoral tribunal nonetheless upheld the first-round results, saying it had not been informed of the party’s suspension. Formalization of the initial results had been postponed until Wednesday after Vamos and his allies said there had been irregularities in the vote, leading to a revision of the ballots. In an interview posted a few hours ago by CNNArévalo said he would contest the suspension, saying “it is clear that it has no legal substance”.
In recent years, Guatemala’s successive governments have adopted a series of measures that have increasingly weakened democracy and the rule of law, including through controversial judicial proceedings.