Published 2023-12-08 23.28
Guatemala’s public prosecutor’s office says the country’s presidential election was invalid and that President Bernardo Arévalo will lose his legal immunity.
The organization OAS condemns the play and compares it to an attempted coup.
Bernardo Arévalo won the presidential election in August against former first lady Sandra Torres. The victory was significant as the political upstart received 58 percent of the vote. He ran for office on a promise to fight corruption in the Central American republic.
The loser, Sandra Torres, and her party, the National Union of Hope, claimed in turn that, among other things, electoral fraud had occurred.
Annul parliamentary elections
Guatemala’s public prosecutor’s office chose late Friday to annul the entire election. Prosecutor Leonor Morales said the presidential, vice-presidential and parliamentary elections are annulled due to irregularities.
Arévalo is due to take up the presidency in January, but since the election in August he has been subjected to a series of legal challenges and attempts, among them attempts to ban the Seed Movement party he represents.
Alévaro has led several demonstrations in protest against attempts by leading groups in Guatemala to stop his inauguration as president, most recently in a large demonstration in the capital Guatemala City on Thursday.
The OAS condemns
But with Friday’s authority decision, the already inflamed polarization intensified – and alarmed several countries in the American continents.
The Pan-American Cooperation Organization OAS, based in Washington in the United States, condemned the Prosecutor’s Office’s decision to annul the election results. In an unusually sharp turn, the decision was considered “an attempted coup”.
“The attempt to annul this year’s general elections represents the worst form of democratic breakdown and represents political fraud against the will of the people,” writes the OAS.