2023-08-23 00:50:42
View of ballots during the vote counting process during the second round of the presidential elections in Guatemala City (REUTERS/Cristina Chiquin)
The Guatemalan prosecutor’s office asked the Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Tuesday for the name, location and position of at least 125,000 people who participated in the counting of votes and in the typing of minutes of the recent presidential elections that, according to the preliminary count, won the progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo, whose party is the subject of a controversial judicial investigation.
David de León, director of the communication department of the electoral court, confirmed that the institution received the requirements of the Public Ministry (prosecutor’s office) to identify the members of the vote-receiving boards of the municipalities and departments within five days.
The objective is for them to be summoned to testify, according to the writings signed by the special prosecutor Leonor Eugenia Morales, about their role in the first electoral round on June 25 and in the ballot on last Sunday, August 20.
The elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo (REUTERS / Pilar Olivares)
The Guatemalan elections became entangled in controversy before finding out who would go to the second round due to the claims of the dissatisfied losing parties, accepted by the Constitutional Court, so that there would be a review of the votes. Among the claimants was the organization that nominated Sandra Torres, a former first lady who ended up losing the presidential race against Arévalo.
In addition to this review of votes, the Prosecutor’s Office immediately began an investigation against the Semilla movement, of the progressive candidate, and ordered the suspension of its legal personality, alleging alleged irregularities in the signatures with which it was constituted as a party and attacked electoral authorities for not abide by that provision.
A constitutional protection stopped the judicial maneuvers against the political organization of Arévalo while the electoral process concludes. The Seed Movement was registered without problems.
Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arévalo, the two runoff candidates in Guatemala (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
Alejandro Balsells, a constitutional lawyer, describes the actions undertaken by the prosecution as “coup plotters and that show absolute disrespect for the electoral regime and the Electoral and Political Parties Law, showing ignorance.”
The lawyer believes that the Public Ministry “is against a legitimate electoral result, against all citizens who went to vote, against the entire electoral system as a whole.” And he added that the prosecution meddles in matters that do not correspond to it, such as the electoral issue.
Regarding the requirements of the prosecution, he recalled that “in Guatemala this is how the military coup governments acted” in reference to the war years (1960-1996), when they took power by force or carried out electoral fraud.
On Tuesday, the same prosecutor’s office added a new requirement against electoral officials by also requesting that the immunity of the Citizens Registrar of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the entity that was in charge of registering parties for the elections after reviewing compliance with requirements, be withdrawn. .
On this occasion, the prosecutor for electoral crimes accused Ramiro Muñoz —who refused to suspend the Arévalo party— of having registered the Prosperidad Ciudadana party without it fulfilling the legal requirements. However, the party ultimately did not participate in the elections because it was suspended by the Electoral Tribunal, with the subsequent approval of the courts for that decision.
They attribute to the electoral registrar the commission of crimes of abuse of authority for electoral purposes and breach of duties.
Counting of votes at a polling station in Guatemala City on August 20, 2023 (REUTERS / Pilar Olivares)
In parallel, the Electoral Board of the department of Guatemala began the review of the minutes that collected the votes of the presidential second round in a hearing in the capital after receiving more than 50 challenges from the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party. of Sandra Torres, who lost a presidential election for the third time.
The preliminary count of the second round gave the progressive Arévalo the winner with more than 59% of the votes in the dispute on Sunday compared to 37% harvested by the former first lady.
With observers from different institutions and the press, the receiving boards displayed the boxes containing the votes. The law grants five days to hold the hearings. Other electoral boards from other departments will have the same deadline for the task as long as challenges have been filed.
Two days after the elections, Torres has yet to comment on the results. Several governments in the hemisphere have shown their support for him and have congratulated Arévalo, who should take office in January 2024.
(AP)
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