By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and SONIA PÉREZ D.
GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalans overwhelmingly picked an independent progressive to be the country’s next president but his opponent remained silent Monday morning, leaving open the possibility of a challenge to landslide results that resoundingly rejected the country’s elite.
With 100% of votes counted, anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo got 58% of the vote to 37% for former first lady Sandra Torres in her third bid for the presidency. The results still have to be certified to become official, an open question as the attorney general’s office attempts to suspend his party’s legal status.
“We know that there is a political persecution underway that is being carried out through the institutions and prosecutor’s offices and judges that have been corruptly co-opted,” Arévalo said Sunday night. “We want to think that the force of this victory is going to make it clear that there is no place for the attempts to derail the electoral process. The Guatemalan people have spoken forcefully.”
Arévalo said that outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei had congratulated him, and told him that they could begin planning the transition the day after the results are certified.
Certifying the results could be complicated by legal objections from Arévalo opponents.
The attorney general’s office announced last month it was investigating the signatures that Arévalo’s Seed Movement had gathered to register. A judge briefly suspended the party’s legal status before a higher court intervened.
By Monday morning, Torres remained silent. Her party released a brief statement late Sunday that gave no indication about whether it would challenge the results.
In the statement, the National Unity of Hope party said that it would take a “definitive position when the results are clarified with total transparency,” and was disappointed that international observers had not reviewed irregularities, without…
Read the full article here