Direct Suffrage in Guatemala: Extrinsic Arevalo and former First Lady Torres battle for the presidency

With less than two hours left before polling stations close, the OAS observation mission has confirmed that 3,500 polling stations are operating normally, with no incidents reported.

Guatemalan presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo de Leon, who leads the voting intention according to opinion polls last week, cast his vote Sunday in the historic center of the capital of the Central American country.

“Guatemalans, this is the time to vote with joy, let’s go vote early,” said Arevalo de Leon, after voting this Sunday at Colegio La Patria, located in downtown Guatemala City.

The 64-year-old progressive candidate and leader of the Movimento Simila political movement was accompanied by his wife, Lucretia Peñado, and was surrounded by dozens of journalists, members of his party and supporters who waited for him at the polling station.

Candidate Sandra Torres Casanova cast her vote this Sunday for the presidency of Guatemala and asked for “honesty” in the electoral process as she faces academic Bernardo Arevalo de Leon.

Torres Casanova appeared at the edge of the 9:00 a.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT) polling station where he was supposed to cast his ballot, located in a residential area in southeastern Guatemala City.

The candidate of the National Unity Party of Hope called for “integrity” in the electoral process due to some “irregularities that we have been denouncing,” as she indicated in brief statements to reporters.

“We will wait for the results with the team, with the game, as we have always said, close to the people,” Torres-Casanova added, amid a slew of cameras and microphones.

The ex-wife of former President Alvaro Colom Caballeros (2008-2012) is vying for the presidency for the third time, after losing in the 2015 and 2019 ballots to Jimmy Morales (2016-2020) and current President Alejandro Giamatti, respectively. .

The latest polls put Torres Casanova’s intention to vote between 35 and 39 percent of Guatemalans, while Arevalo de Leon has it between 61 and 65 percent.

Guatemalans go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president after a campaign marred by attempts to sideline candidate Bernardo Arevalo, an unlikely centre-left candidate who leads a crusade against corruption.

About 9.4 million Guatemalans have been empowered to choose Giamatti’s successor, who should hand over leadership on January 14, 2024.

Approximately 3,500 polling stations will open in 7 stores (1:00 pm GMT) and will close at 6:00 pm (00:00 GMT).

The first official audits will be known about three hours after voting ends.

Two of the candidates are centre-left, the former First Lady Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arevalothe son of a president who had a history in Guatemala, faces off this Sunday in a presidential ballot.

The central square which is the political heart of Guatemala City, the nation’s capital, was full. Complete as it was for several days in 2015, when thousands of citizens celebrated the resignation of a president accused of corruption. Last Wednesday night, the 16th of this month, the arena gathered thousands again, this time for the closing campaign of the Seed movementWhich will take place next Sunday in the second round of the presidential elections to National Unity of Hope (UNE), a longtime party of progressive origins transformed, by its presidential candidate, into a mix of veteran political actors, military veterans, evangelical pastors, and local pastors.

Bernardo Arevalo He led a quiet, predictable life with his family in Geneva for nearly a decade, working on pro-democracy issues for a nonprofit organization. This quiet existence ended when he returned home, Guatemalaand get involved in politics.