After a turbulent election campaign, the surprise Social Democrat candidate Bernardo Arévalo emerges as the winner of the runoff election for the presidency in Guatemala. The outsider from the party Movimiento Semilla (Movement Seed) was after almost all the votes were counted by the highest electoral authority on Sunday evening (local time) with 58.85 percent ahead of the ex-First Lady and three-time presidential candidate Sandra Torres (36.4 percent). the centre-left National Unity of Hope (UNE) party.
The electoral process in Guatemala had been marred by attempts by the political elite and the Attorney General’s Office to use legal means to halt the rise of Arévalos, which was linked to hopes of change. The European Union had expressed its concern about this. Several candidates had been excluded from the first ballot for controversial reasons.
Bernardo Arévalo from the Movimiento Semilla party shows his finger stained with voting ink after voting.
(Photo: Sandra Sebastian/dpa)
Opposition and independent experts questioned whether the elections were held under fair conditions. Recognized former corruption investigators in exile and activists spoke of a “pact of the corrupt” – an informal alliance between political, economic, legal and criminal actors to protect their own interests.
In June, Arévalo, who wants to take action against corruption and the erosion of democracy in Guatemala, unexpectedly became the second strongest candidate in the first ballot. Torres landed in first place. Conservative incumbent Alejandro Giammattei was barred from re-election by law after four years in office.
A former diplomat, conflict resolution expert and MP, Arévalo is the son of Guatemala’s first democratically elected President, Juan José Arévalo (1945-1951). His progressive party emerged after the 2015 anti-corruption protests in Guatemala.
Thousands of people leave Central America’s most populous country of 17 million people every month, trying to travel to the United States via Mexico in search of a better life. Other important issues for Guatemalans are crime, inflation and unemployment.