Aspiring governors will be summoned to present their defenses to the challenges – 2024-02-17 21:58:32

The gubernatorial election process continues to advance. On February 15, the period for receiving objections once morest the candidates ended, as established by the methodology approved by the government of Bernardo Arévalo.

There were 1,546 people nationwide who presented their paperwork to the Codedes to occupy the position of governors, in Guatemala alone there were 215, in Alta Veraáz 91, 89 in Quiché and 87 in Huehuetenango.

In the department of Guatemala, of the 215 candidates who applied, challenges were filed once morest eight. The observations indicate that these people have open cases in court, or there is some conflict of interest due to having a council position.

In El Progreso, for example, there were 14 people who received challenges, the majority for having been officials of previous governments, for having ties or having worked with previous council administrations. In Alta Verapaz there were three challenges, also alluding to former officials or links to past governments.

In accordance with the procedure, the president of the Departmental Development Councils (Codede), who is the governor, will call an extraordinary session in which the candidates will be made aware that they received challenges to their nominations and their defenses will be heard.

Also in the session, the applicants will be interviewed and the files will be qualified to form the shortlist. The procedure indicates that they may call this session between February 16 and 22, and all files for candidates for the presidency must be submitted no later than March 1.

However, it was recently learned that each Council will use a different methodology to qualify and analyze the files. In El Progreso a comparison table will be used, while in Quetzaltenango the members of the Codede still had to agree on how it would be done.

The regulation also establishes seven specific aspects that must be considered such as knowledge of the potential and problems of the department, experience in administration, leadership, strategic vision, empathy, a work plan and mastery of the dominant linguistic community.