By Sonia Perez | Associated Press
GUATEMALA CITY — The top vote-getter in the first round of Guatemala’s presidential election said Thursday she is suspending her campaign activities in solidarity with her opponent, whose party is being pursued by prosecutors.
Sandra Torres said in a news conference that the current playing field between herself and Seed Party candidate Bernardo Arévalo is uneven.
“We want to demonstrate our solidarity with the voters of the Seed party and also with those who came out to vote,” Torres said. “As a candidate I want to compete under equal conditions.”
Torres’ announcement came the same day that the country’s top prosecutors raided the headquarters of the electoral authority just hours after it certified the June 25 results of the first round of the presidential election.
The move by the Attorney General’s Office appeared aimed at stopping Arévalo, whose campaign platform is eliminating corruption, and it immediately sparked objections from within and outside Guatemala. U.S. officials called it a threat to the country’s democracy.
The raid came immediately on the heels of special prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche’s announcement Wednesday that a judge had agreed to suspend the legal status of the Seed Movement. Curruchiche said the party allegedly violated the law while gathering the signatures it needed to form.
The Attorney General’s Office said Thursday that the purpose of the raid was to seize evidence from the office responsible for voter rolls and party registration. A raid was also expected to take place at the Seed Movement’s party headquarters Thursday.
Arévalo dismissed the prosecutors’ actions as illegal.
“What they are trying to do is simply plant doubt about our honesty,” he told a news conference Thursday, adding that the raid and party’s suspension had a “clear political purpose.”
Arévalo was a surprise winner in the June 25 election. In the days before the vote, the former…
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