[1/8]A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during the first round of Guatemala’s presidential election in Chinautla, Guatemala, June 25, 2023. Portal/Josue Decavele
GUATEMALA CITY, June 25 (Portal) – Guatemalans voted for a new president on Sunday in an election headed for an August runoff. The early results pushed the centre-left party to the top, but also seemed to show widespread voter frustration at the exclusion of an early favourite.
The competition, dominated by international concerns over corruption, must be decided in a second round of voting, with lead candidate Sandra Torres, the former first lady, on track to secure the 50% plus one vote needed for overall victory, a clear vote to miss.
Torres is up against more than 20 candidates, including Edmond Mulet, a career diplomat, and Zury Rios, daughter of the late dictator Efrain Rios Montt.
With 40% of the vote counted, Torres’ centre-left National Unity of Hope (UNE) party garnered 15% of the vote, while Semilla, another left-leaning party, had 12.2%, preliminary results showed.
But with nearly one in four ballots invalid or blank, Guatemalans expressed dissatisfaction with the electoral process and the decision to exclude the first front-runner, businessman Carlos Pineda. Pineda urged his supporters to falsify their ballots after he was declared ineligible.
Opinion polls had failed to indicate that Semilla’s candidate Bernardo Arevalo, a former diplomat and son of former President Juan José Arevalo, would advance to the second round.
Semilla’s previous presidential campaign was led by former Attorney General and anti-corruption activist Thelma Aldana, who was ultimately barred from running.
The race to succeed Conservative President Alejandro Giammattei, who is legally limited to one term, was marred by a court ruling blocking four candidates, including Pineda.
The US and European Union criticized Pineda’s expulsion, who called the decision “electoral fraud.”
“We don’t see a process that follows international standards, but rather one that uses arbitrary criteria,” said Carolina Jimenez, president of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) think tank. “This is terribly serious.”
Meanwhile, unrest in the city of San Jose del Golfo, near the capital, forced voting there to be postponed to August, Supreme Electoral Court official Irma Palencia said.
The stakes in the election are high as standards of transparency and human rights, poverty, corruption and violence have deteriorated in recent years.
“I have always voted for Sandra Torres because she has been of great service to my (community) (as First Lady). She gave money, food and a lot of help to poor people,” said Maria Consuelo Ruano, 72.
“I would also be happy if Mulet makes it to the second round,” she added. “(He) looks like an honest man, unlike Giammattei.”
But political analysts say a fragmented Congress could prevent candidates from making real change.
Polls suggest Torres, the ex-wife of the late President Alvaro Colom, who ruled from 2008 to 2012, is likely to lose a runoff election as she is unpopular in the capital, Guatemala City, where a high percentage of voters reside is.
It is the third presidential candidacy for the 67-year-old politician. In the two previous races she took second place.
Reporting by Sofía Menchú in Guatemala City and Diego Oré in Mexico City; writing from Isabel Woodford and Dave Graham; Edited by Stephen Eisenhammer and Robert Birsel
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Diego Ore