GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The party that promoted the presidential candidacy of Zury Ríos Sosa, who finished sixth in Guatemala’s elections, filed a complaint Friday with the Public Ministry against members of departmental electoral committees from across the country a target is to repeat the elections.
Attorney Jaime Hernández, charged with filing criminal charges against just over 400 citizens who participated in departmental electoral commissions and digitizing the records of crimes of ideological falsehood with electoral aggravation, asked prosecutors to order a judge to arrest them request all involved.
“There are more than 1,000 certificates that are totally tampered with and point to crimes,” Hernández told reporters. “They staged a fraud that cannot remain anonymous,” added the lawyer, who also defended the former candidate’s father, the late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.
The party’s intention is to repeat the elections, Hernández said.
Under the Elections and Political Parties Act, members of departmental electoral boards enjoy immunity, as do municipal mayors.
The Organization of American States, which observed the elections with almost a hundred observers, called on political actors to respect the election results.
“The OAS mission, led by former Paraguayan Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga, reiterates that it has experienced a satisfactory election day, with citizens expressing their will, polling station officials facilitating voting and political parties monitoring the day at each of its stages have.” said the mission.
Bernardo Arévalo, the candidate who finished second and will advance to the second round of voting, said attempts to disqualify the process belong to those who lost. “More than 14 parties are trying to discredit the people’s decision,” he told a press conference, assuring that these movements are doing so without popular support and without any legal basis.
One of the first to confirm the electoral process and its results was Ríos Sosa himself, candidate of the Valor Unionista coalition, who, the day after the election and with more than 99% of the votes counted, made a statement claiming that The election results “clearly express a demand for change, which must be fulfilled on the basis of the guarantees of Guatemala’s constitution,” adding: “I believe in democracy and I wish success to those taking part in the second round of elections.” “
Before filing the complaint, Ríos Sosa deleted the statement from his social media.
In the June 25 elections, none of the 22 pairs of candidates for the presidency achieved 50% of the valid votes cast, so there will be a second ballot between the two candidates who achieved the first places, as required by law.
Former first lady Sandra Torres, proposed by the centre-right National Unity of Hope party, received 15.8% of the vote, followed by Bernardo Arévalo of the Seed movement with 11.7%. Both meet in a second round scheduled for August 20th.
Torres joined the trend of doubt on social media, saying that “a large part of the almost 2 million votes in the department of Guatemala could have been manipulated in favor of one party, such a situation burdens the country and undermines democracy in Guatemala”. , he said on his official Twitter account.
Ríos Sosa received 6.5% of the vote, placing sixth behind pro-government Manuel Conde and Edmond Mulet, one of the polls’ favorites.
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