The candidate for the presidency of Guatemala for the Seed Movement, Bernardo Arévalo, issued a formal complaint before the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) of the Organization of American States (OAS), after attempts to cancel the political party he represents , as it became known on Wednesday.
During the presentation of the mission’s preliminary report at the OAS headquarters in Washington, the head of the MOE, Eladio Loizada, explained that the presidential candidate expressed on Tuesday night that there is “persecution and criminalization of affiliates and members of the political party Movimiento Semilla, which is carried out for the purpose of intimidation.”
Last Wednesday, the Public Ministry ordered the suspension of the legal status of the Seed Movement, however, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala granted a granted temporary protection to the party, which protects him to participate in the second electoral round scheduled for August 20.
“The mission considers that this complaint by a candidate voted for by the citizens and proclaimed by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, constitutes a very relevant and serious fact,” said Loizada.
The preliminary report presented by the MOE detailed post-electoral observations that include “various actions” by political actors and party forces “aimed at questioning the fidelity of the results and sowing unfounded doubts about the process.”
The actions, as stated, included the use of “very isolated” cases of errors in the tally sheets to “make it appear” that there were systematic problems in the scrutiny, or the presentation of legal resources. to stop the officialization From the results.
The request by the Public Ministry to suspend the Seed Movement and the raid on the headquarters of the Citizens’ Registry of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), were some of the acts of “judicialization of the process” observed by the mission.
In a recorded message addressed to the OAS Permanent Council, the Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mario Adolfo Búcaro, defended the electoral process in his country and assured that President Alejandro Giammattei “has already notified the candidates for this election in the second return that they will have all the support apart from our government to be able to assist them in matters of security”.
Búcaro also highlighted officialization by the TSE of the results to the charges to congressional deputies and assured that “Guatemala, a democratic and independent country, values the fact of understanding that only Guatemalans can be responsible for Guatemalans,” while calling for “non-interference in internal affairs as a pillar foundation of democracy”.
The OAS EOM was installed in the country days before the general elections and was made up of 90 specialists, observers from 20 countries, who witnessed the elections in the 24 Departmental Electoral Boards.
Although the EOM indicated that it observed “an electoral day that in general passed calmly,” it warned “about the attempts to ignore the electoral will expressed at the polls, the extreme judicialization of the process, the interference of non-electoral institutions in the electoral process , the disqualification of candidacies and cases of violence in the context of the electoral process”.
Loizada emphasized that the EOM “maintains its concern” for the remainder of the electoral process in Guatemala, due to the “lack of legal certainty” and the possibility of “arbitrary” disqualification of any of the options that emanated from the vote on June 25th.
Concern in the region
During the interventions of the OAS delegations, the ambassadors of multiple countries subscribed to the concern about the judicialization of the process.
“The Colombian government calls on all the actors involved to guarantee the rights of both voters and candidates in the elections that will take place on August 20 and to respect the popular will expressed there,” said the Colombian ambassador. Colombia before the OAS, Luis Ernesto Vargas.
While the Dominican Republic ambassador to the organization, Josué Fiallo, warned that “any form of intimidation and coercion that endangersthe integrity of the democratic process or that threatens the safety of those who drive it or participate in it in any capacity.”
On behalf of the United States, Ambassador Francisco Mora welcomed the certification of the first round of elections that left Arévalo and former first lady Sandra Torres as the two candidates who would advance to the race.
“Continued efforts to interfere in Guatemala’s elections threatened to undermine its democratic process and its adherence to the Inter-American Democratic Charter…as we have noted in the past with respect to Venezuela and Nicaragua, what is happening in Guatemala affects us all. Mora said.
Finally, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, highlighted the work of the MOEA and assured that “it is necessary to recover rationality” in Guatemalan politics by political and institutional actors.
“Trying to change or distort the results is absolutely serious,” said Almagro.
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