Guatemalans in the US denounce bias in the registration of candidates in their country’s elections

Guatemalans in the United States are concerned about the transparency and credibility of the elections in their country, with just a few days to go until the end of the period to register to vote abroad, on March 25.

A little more than 100,000 Guatemalans in the US could vote in the next general elections on June 25. But Carlos Lam, leader of the Association of Guatemalans without Borders, told the voice of america that to date the number of his countrymen in the United States qualified to vote does not reach 100,000.

In Washington, a group of Guatemalans working to achieve a greater number of census registrations met this week to refine details of the strategy of “mobilization” of their countrymen in the final stretch of registration in the metropolitan area of ​​the US capital.

Lam said that with the Platform for Guatemalans Abroad they have tried to increase the number of registered residents.

Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which organizes the elections, plans to install six voting centers in the US, and this will be the only country outside of Guatemala where people can vote, Lam said.

The TSE has said that the process is advancing successfully and that thanks to the registration campaigns, inside and outside the country, “the register of the registered population, as of March 12, is 9,206,866 citizens.”

Lam and other activists point out that the electoral process began to lose credibility for alleged irregularities in the registration of candidates.

“We have seen with great concern the partiality of the TSE regarding the registration of candidates,” he said.

Lam highlighted that peasant leader Thelma Cabrera and former human rights attorney Jordán Rodas, two attractive figures among indigenous peoples and the opposition, “were denied participation as a presidential ticket.”

Thelma Cabrera is an indigenous leader and human rights defender who, with the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP), obtained more than 400,000 votes in the 2019 presidential elections, 10% of the votes cast in the first round, which They were in fourth position.

Jordan Rodas, who completed his term as Human Rights Ombudsman in August 2022, joined the MLP as Cabrera’s running mate.

The pairing was rejected by the TSE in a first ruling on January 28. After a review and appeal before the Constitutional Court, it was rejected again.

The TSE has not given explanations for the refusal to register the candidates except for the “invalidity” in the validity of the settlement of one of the applicants, which was promoted by one of the magistrates, local media reported.

The TSE did not respond to a request for comment from the voice of america on the registration of candidates.

Concerns about lack of transparency have permeated the public, Lam explained, and residents abroad are following him closely and there have been multiple protests against the TSE.

From the platform of Guatemalans Abroad they have denounced inconsistencies in the process, including the refusal to register certain candidates while others, including questioned figures, have had the process endorsed.

They criticize inscription of questioned figures

The process to elect the successor to President Alejandro Giammattei, the 160 congressional deputies and the 340 mayors and their municipal councils in the general elections, which will take place on June 25, has been a long road of setbacks and observations by observers.

One of the candidates to whom the TSE gave the green light is Manuel Baldizón, ex-convict in the United States for drug trafficking and organized crime, who, after an initial rejection of his candidacy for the National Congress, appealed to the courts and managed to register, despite to have open investigation processes in Guatemala in the case of bribery from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Another one that was accepted and has been questioned is that of the presidential candidate for the Unity of Hope (UNE) party, Sandra Torres, who faced criminal proceedings for illicit financing in the 2015 electoral campaign, after an investigation by the Public Ministry and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which was withdrawn in 2022 after this instance was beheaded. led by former prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandovalnow exiled in the United States.

They have also pointed out the candidacy of former deputy Jaime Martínez Lohayza, who is running for mayor of Jutiapa, for the Valor Party, who has a history of processes for influence peddling.

“That’s like a small sample of how the system is really manipulated and co-opted,” Lam said.

Constitutionalist lawyer Alejandro Balsells told the newspaper Free Press when referring to the “suitability” criteria that the TSE follows to accept or reject candidacies that they “lack” any legal principle.

“It is a mistake to believe that what the TSE does is legal, based on criteria. What they are doing is receiving instructions and orders to enable and prohibit options,” Balsells told the Guatemalan outlet.

They point out that transparency in the elections “is essential”

Civil society organizations and observers such as the British mission in Guatemala, headed by Ambassador Nick Wuhettngham, have pointed out that transparency “is essential to guarantee democracy” in Guatemala. The apostolic nuncio Francisco Montecillo has also reiterated as a representative of the Holy See that in the elections “transparency must prevail.”

Observers have noted that “the secrecy of the TSE, the registration process, political financing, registration and suitability of candidates and anticipated campaigns” tarnish the electoral process.

Former Human Rights attorney Jordán Rodas, rejected by the TSE on the grounds that his settlement was invalid, has said that “democracy in Guatemala has regressed.”

From the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) point to “dubious” practices by the TSE that jeopardize political rights and the credibility of the ongoing electoral process.

Ana María Méndez, director for Central America of WOLA, maintains that “the decision to disqualify these candidates [Cabrera y Rodas] is based on dubious motives and could undermine the rights of the entire Guatemalan population to participate in free and fair elections.”

TSE has not transferred funds to electoral boards

A Free Press publication this Monday indicates that the TSE has not made the transfers of funds to the Departmental Electoral Boards (JED), considered by the backbone of the elections, which would already be delayed in the process.

The budget assigned by Congress to the TSE to carry out the elections is 500 million quetzales (more than 64 million dollars), according to the General Budget of the Nation.

Some presidents of the JED see these “economic complications” as a brake to work on the establishment of teams.

The TSE told VOA that “work is being done on training and coordination with the members of the JED” for the preparation of the operational plans on the scheduled schedule, and that the plenary session of TSE magistrates has approved the operational plans of 19 Electoral Boards, and expects ” that in the next few days the budget will be assigned”.

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