Bernardo Arévalo won the presidential elections in Guatemala

The leftist candidate Bernardo Arévalo, of the Seed Movement, has won the elections for the Presidency of Guatemala, with 58 % of the votes, for which he will take office on January 14, 2024.

Arévalo has received more than 2.4 million votes, while his rival, Sandra Torres, from the National Unity of Hope (UNE), has obtained 1.5 million ballots, which corresponds to 37.2 % of the tally sheets. scrutinized.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has placed citizen participation at 44.1 %, in elections marked by abstentionism in the face of the crisis that the country has been experiencing since the first round, when the Prosecutor’s Office tried to suspend the Seed Movement, and registered the headquarters of both the political formation and the TSE.

After the results, Arévalo has declared that “this victory belongs to the people, and together we will fight against corruption”; however, Torres has not recognized his failure.

In a statement, the UNE executive committee has declared itself “in permanent session due to the latest events recorded with the vote count” and, although they have shown their respect for the rule of law, they have stated that they will establish “a definitive position when clarify the results with total transparency.”

Thus, the Torres formation has denounced the position of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) which, they allege, “never clarified why it endorsed the irregular use of a parallel system for the Departmental Electoral Board of the Central District and Department of Guatemala, used during the first round of elections and which failed in other countries”.

However, they have criticized the international observation missions, arguing that they regret “that international observers have never spoken out to review the irregularities that prevailed in the current electoral process.”

These elections have acquired much greater relevance after Arévalo broke with all the forecasts – in some polls he was ranked eighth among the electorate’s preferences – by managing to advance to the second round. His message against corruption, democratic setbacks and the political class that has managed the country for decades ended up permeating a very discontented society.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Fernando Chuy / ZUMA Press Wire / dpa)

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