Pablo Solares of the organization Puente Norte explained to RFI why a massive participation of Guatemalans living in the United States is not expected in Sunday’s elections in Guatemala, despite the fact that they have been able to do so since 2019. Barely 700 Guatemalans voted that year and in this opportunity a similar figure is expected.
Guatemala goes to the polls this June 25 in a rarefied climate due to the disqualifications of several presidential candidates and the persecution of the press in a country of emigration due to the lack of security and poverty.
Diaspora Guatemalans have local economic weight through remittances. They could also have it in politics, since those who reside in the United States have been able to vote since the last election. The problem is that, out of 1.4 million Guatemalans, only a derisory number paid at that time. What will happen now?
“To answer that question, the only basis we have is the experience of the previous 2019 election, in which only 700 people voted in the entire United States, a country that, by the way, is the only one where it is possible to do so. ”, Pablo Solares, an analyst at Puente Norte, an organization focused on the study of migration from Guatemala, told RFI.
According to Solares, one of the main causes for this low participation is “poor planning and poor administration of the election by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in the United States. That is why it is speculated that on this occasion not much more will vote. We estimate that the weight of the vote abroad for Guatemala will be zero or close to zero. We saw very little political will on the part of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to include the Guatemalan population residing abroad in the plans for this election”, the analyst underlines.
The difficulties faced by Guatemalans living in the United States are just one aspect of an electoral process questioned by the disqualification of candidates, the persecution of the press and corruption.
“Right now the political rights of Guatemalans are being violated. Among others, the free participation of citizens, regardless of their ideological orientations, especially if they are not related to the current system, which is perceived as a corrupt government. (It is also being violated) the participation of young people and people abroad. Guatemala has not been able to overcome all these challenges”, he points out.
According to a survey published this Thursday by the newspaper Prensa Libre, the social-democratic first lady Sandra Torres leads the voting intention with 21.3%, followed by the former centrist diplomat Edmund Mulet, with 13.4%. With these results, a second round would be necessary on August 20.
