Former First Lady Sandra Torres Casanova and Deputy Bernardo Arévalo de León will face each other in the second round of the Guatemalan presidential elections on August 20, after the results of the elections held on Sunday.
According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), this is an almost definitive trend, with 90 percent of the vote count. “We could really say that it is a practically definitive trend, we are reaching 90%” of the vote count, said TSE magistrate Gabriel Aguilera early Monday morning, nine hours after the end of the vote.
Torres Casanova, 67, won first place in the elections, where for the third time in a row with his party, the National Unity of Hope (UNE), ensured his participation in the second round.
The ex-wife of former president Álvaro Colom Caballeros (2008-2012) accounts for 15.12 percent of the total votes cast for president in Guatemala, 90 percent of the polling stations counted.
(Also read: Who are the candidates running for the presidency in Guatemala?)
Four years ago, in the 2019 elections, the former first lady succumbed in the second round to the current president, Alejandro Giammattei. And eight years ago, in 2015, he also lost to comedian Jimmy Morales (2016-2020).
“I am very grateful, first with God and then with the people who have always backed and supported us,” Torres Casanova said at a press conference at a hotel in Guatemala City, after learning the first results.
In second place, Bernardo Arévalo de León accumulates 12.19 percent of the total votes thanks to the political group Semilla, born from the fight against corruption in
Guatemala in 2015.
The polls indicated that Arévalo de León, current deputy, would obtain a seventh or eighth place, but the support in the urban areas was transcendental for their access to a second round.
Added to this is the fall in popularity of the candidacies of former diplomat Edmond Mulet and the daughter of the coup dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, Zury Ríos Sosa.
The polls warned that Mulet and Ríos Sosa would compete for second place. However, none exceeded 7 percent of the total votes.
Guatemalans voted without great illusions of overcoming the poverty, violence and corruption that plague the country to choose its next president among 22 candidates, after a campaign marked by the exclusion of candidates and the persecution of the press.
Almost 3,500 voting centers worked on Sunday to receive the votes of some 9.4 million qualified citizens, but participation was barely 60 percent, according to the TSE.
The TSE registered five incidents, but in two there were clashes between residents and police who fired tear gas to break up the protests over alleged anomalies in the elections.
(You can read: Zury Ríos Sosa, the daughter of the dictator Efraín Ríos who wants the presidency of Guatemala)
The riots occurred in San José del Golfo, northeast of the capital, where voting was suspended, as well as in San Martín Zapotitlán, south of the City of
Guatemala, according to the electoral entity.
Current President Alejandro Giammattei did not comment on the allegations of alleged irregularities and blamed opposition groups for having incited violence during the day.
Third place so far belongs to the lawyer Manuel Conde, from the official Vamos party, with 7.84 percent of the ballots in his favor.
The difference of Bernardo Arévalo de León over Conde is more than 200,000 votes, Therefore, according to experts, it is Torres Casanova and the Semilla candidate who will be in the second round.
“This is not the time to claim victory, we are prudent,” said Arévalo, son of former president Juan José Arévalo (1945-1951) and a candidate for the Seed movement. However, “we are very pleased with the results,” added the 64-year-old sociologist.
Torres, on the other hand, declared herself confident of winning in the second round, although she lost the 2015 and 2019 ballots. “With whomever (the ballot) we are going to win, we are leading above 15 percent right now,” said the former former 67 year old lady. “We are ready, ready and willing to win,” added the candidate of the National Unity of Hope (UNE).
In fourth place was right-wing businessman Armando Castillo (supported by an evangelical party) with 7.37 percent and centrist Edmond Mulet in fifth with 6.78 percent, according to the TSE.
The right-wing Zury Ríos, daughter of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, came in sixth place, with 6.68 percent.
There was a high number of invalid votes (17.41 percent), four times more than in 2019, and white votes (6.98 percent), reflecting the lack of interest and mistrust in the electoral process.
(Also: ‘In Central America we are witnessing a resurgence of authoritarianism and hopefully it will not spread’)
Whoever wins the ballot, it will mark an ideological turn in the country after three right-wing leaders
In the next few hours, the Guatemalan Supreme Electoral Tribunal will make official the results for the election of 160 new deputies to Congress, 20 legislators to the Central American Parliament and 340 municipal mayors.
The winner of the August 20 runoff will replace right-wing president Alejandro Giammattei, who reaches the end of his term with 76 percent disapproval, according to the ProDatos firm.
Whoever wins the ballot will mark an ideological turn in the country after three right-wing leaders: Otto Pérez (2012-2015), Jimmy Morales (2016-2020) and Giammattei, who must leave office in January 2024.
However, Giammattei’s Vamos party would be the majority bench in the 160-seat Congress, winning 40 deputies, according to a projection by the influential newspaper Prensa Libre. Torres’s party would have 27 deputies and Arévalo’s 24.
AFP and EFE
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