Who is Guatemala's New President, Alejandro Maldonado?

Former Constitutional Court judge Alejandro Maldonado will take over as temporary president of Guatemala in the wake of the resignation of Otto Perez Molina, who is shrouded in financial scandal.

Elected as acting vice president by the Guatemalan Congress, when predecessor Roxana Baldetti resigned facing criminal charges, Maldonado will now fill the shoes of a president whose immunity was revoked and a warrant issued for his arrest over the “La Linea” fraud network.

RELATED: In Depth: Guatemala Uprising

In Guatemalan law, the vice president assumes the top position in the case of a resignation, which has now happened for the first time in the Central American nation’s history.

The man taking over the country’s top position has a background in law, having studied law at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala and written several books on public and constitutional law.

A conservative affiliated to the far-right political party National Liberation Movement, which was accused of employing death squads against communists in the 1960s, Maldonado took his first political posting in 1956, as councillor on the Guatemala City Council. He became a Congress legislator and was made minister of education between 1970 and 1974. After a 20-year hiatus, he rejoined the cabinet in 1995 as foreign minister.

The veteran lawmaker has also served as ambassador at the United Nations in New York, and representative ambassador for the U.N. European Office in Geneva, among other high-powered roles.

RELATED: The US and the Militarization of Latin America​

Maldonado was one of the majority of Constitutional Court judges to quash the genocide conviction of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, whose retrial has since stalled and stuttered to a halt.

Maldonado will hold the Guatemalan presidency until Jan. 14, 2016, when Perez Molina’s term would have ended and the new president will take over.

Elections for this are slated to take place next Sunday Sept. 6, in which some 7.5 million Guatemalans are eligible to vote for the new leader and vice president, as well as 334 mayors, 158 representatives and 20 lawmakers to parliament.