Guatemalan Constitutional Court leaves Carlos Pineda out of the presidential race

( Spanish) — The magistrates of the Constitutional Court of Guatemala ordered that Carlos Pineda’s candidacy for the presidency, for the Citizen Prosperity party, continue to be suspended, which leaves him out of the race.

Pineda together with a group of followers gathered outside the Constitutional Court. “Corruption won, Guatemala lost”, assured after learning of the decision, while inviting his supporters to vote void on June 25.

Pineda’s candidacy had been suspended by a court on May 19 after the Cambio party, led by Manuel Baldizón, filed an appeal to challenge the National Assembly that appointed him as a candidate.

The former presidential candidate, in an attempt to stay in the race, filed two appeals before the Constitutional Court. One of them was seeking, according to Pineda, a provisional protection and the other to delay the start of printing the ballots.

“I want to thank all my Guatemalan brothers for giving me their unconditional support, unfortunately we are not enough to change the course of this country,” Pineda said. in a posted video on his Twitter account.

Pineda, a 51-year-old businessman, led the voting intention according to the survey prepared by the ProDatos firm for the Prensa Libre newspaper, one of the most important in Guatemala.

The poll carried out between April 14 and 23 and released at the beginning of May gave the former candidate 23.1 percent of the intention to vote, followed by Sandra Torres, candidate for the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party.

The survey was carried out with 1,202 people through face-to-face interviews in 22 departments of Guatemala with a margin of error of +-2.8% and 95% confidence.

Other candidates out of contention

Pineda is the third candidate to succeed current president Alejandro Giammattei who is out of the race.

Guatemalan candidate of the PAN-Podemos coalition, Roberto Arzu, arrives to vote at a polling station in Guatemala City on June 16, 2019 during the general elections. (Photo credit should go to ORLANDO ESTRADA/AFP/Getty Images)

Another annulled candidacy is that of Roberto Arzú, from the Podemos party, due to a lawsuit accusing early electoral campaign before the supreme electoral court. The Constitutional Court confirmed this Thursday that he was left out of the list of candidates, by rejecting the appeals that he had filed.

“Today the voice of the people is not imposed, today the Government of the people is finished being snatched. We are facing a reality in which power equals the Law,” the Podemos party said in a statement after learning of the ruling, while thanking supporters for their support.

While the candidacy for the vice presidency of Jordan Rodas, for the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples, became vacant after his successor in the Human Rights Ombudsman filed a criminal lawsuit against him. Rodas has denied the accusation.

The annulment of candidacies has increased criticism from social and labor sectors and from victims of the armed conflict, among others, who consider that the process lacks transparency.

The European Union called in a statement this Sunday on the Guatemalan authorities to guarantee that the registration of candidates is not obstructed and that any controversy is processed without delay, transparency and impartiality.