Guatemala's TSE Suspends Electoral Results

Published 3 July 2023

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"...the Constitutional Courtgave five days for the electoral boards to plan and carry out the scrutiny hearings..."

On Sunday, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Guatemala announced that it complied with the order of the Constitutional Court (CC), and therefore the "qualification and officialization" of the results of the general elections of last June 25 was suspended.

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On Saturday, the CC issued a communiqué in which it explained that its decision was taken after endorsing an appeal presented by a group of nine political parties that requested a new review of the tally sheets.

"In execution of the resolution of the CC and while the situations alluded in its resolution are elucidated, this collegiate body suspends the qualification and officialization of the results of the General Elections", stated the text of the TSE.

It also mentioned that the CC gave five days for the electoral boards to plan and carry out the scrutiny hearings, "keeping rigorously the forms and requirements imposed by the special law of the matter."

#URGENTE El @TSEGuatemala ha resuelto que se suspende “la calificación y oficialización de resultados de las Elecciones Generales 25JUN23” es decir que, a partir de ahora no se puede proclamar a ganadores, según ha ordenado la Corte de Constitucionalidad. pic.twitter.com/nJxMK85RZP
— Santiago Botón �� (@SantiagoteleSUR) July 2, 2023

The @TSEGuatemala has resolved that "the qualification and officialization of the results of the General Elections 25JUN23" is suspended, that is to say that, from now on, winners cannot be proclaimed, as ordered by the Constitutional Court.

The electoral boards of the country must repeat the scrutiny review hearing, in which the political parties will be able to present challenges in the minutes that in their criteria are confusing.

Among these political groups are the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), of Sandra Torres, who passed to the second round of the presidential election; Vamos, of president Alejandro Giammattei; and Valor, of the daughter of the late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, Zury Ríos Sosa.

Guatemalan citizens went to the polls on June 25 to elect a president, 160 deputies to the National Congress, 20 legislators to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) and 340 mayors.

According to the preliminary official results, no presidential candidate reached 50 percent plus one of the votes, so a run-off election was called for the following August 20 between Torres, first place, and Bernardo Arévalo de León, of the Semilla Movement, who came in second place, despite polls placing him in eighth place.