GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – Guatemala’s highest court has suspended publication of official election results, granting a temporary injunction to 10 parties challenging the results of the June 25 vote.
Late Saturday, the Constitutional Court called for a new hearing to review the disputed differences in no more than five days.
Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arevalo emerged from a field of nearly two dozen presidential candidates in the first round of voting. With neither approaching the 50% threshold, they were expected to compete in a run-off on August 20 to determine the next president of Guatemala.
Arévalo in particular of the Seed Movement Progressive Party was a surprise, as he was not polling among the leading candidates. Torres, the candidate for the conservative UNE party, is making her third bid for the presidency.
Essentially, the court wants to compare the counts put into place in the electoral system with those in the same polling places to make sure they match. If necessary, the court said it would order a new count of the contested votes.
Constitutional lawyer Alejandro Balsils said a recount should be avoided in favor of the process. It is the temporarily formed committees that count the votes at each polling station on Election Day that must be counted.
In practical terms, it means that a week after the election, the results remain unofficial for the president, vice president, all seats in Congress, and hundreds of local elected offices across the country.
Among the parties contesting the results were three candidates who were polling leaders before election day but ended up getting less than 8% of the vote each. However, Torres’ party also asked for a review of the voting numbers.
Dozens demonstrated in front of the court on Saturday night, calling for their votes to be respected and not to be determined by the courts.
Arevalo was among them and said, “With the people we will not allow them to defraud the will of the Guatemalan people.”
