It’s official. Bernardo Arévalo de León and Karin Herrera They will be the next president and vice president of Guatemala, after receiving this Tuesday the credentials from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to hold these positions in the four-year government that will begin on January 14, 2024. Seed Movement obtained 2.4 million votes in the second round of the elections held on August 20, defeating his rival by more than 20 points, Sandra Torres, who still does not recognize the results.
As soon as he collected his credentials, Arévalo denounced that “the political persecution that is underway from the Public Ministry, whose objective seems to be to circumvent the popular will and violate the constitutional order, does not cease.” In this way, he referred to the investigation led by the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), Rafael Curruchiche, who accuses the Seed Movement of having established itself as a political party in 2017 forging more than 300 signatures of affiliates and 18 of people already deceased.
For this reason, Curruchiche requested the legal suspension of this political force that won the elections, which caused that on July 12, the judge of the Seventh Court, Freddy Orellana, accept this petition and order the cancellation of the Seed Movement. However, the Constitutional Court prevented it, thanks to an amparo from Semilla, although on August 28, when the results of the second round were made official, the director of the Registry of Citizens of the TSE, Ramiro Muñoz, resolved the provisional suspension of legal personality leaving Bernardo Arévalo without political formation. Likewise, the Board of Directors of Congress disregarded the seven deputies of the Semilla bench on August 30 and declared them independent, as well as the 23 legislators of this party who will take office on January 14, 2024.
However, this situation was reversed again last Saturday when the Plenary of TSE Magistrates resolved to suspend the provisional suspension of Semilla’s legal personality until the electoral process concludes on October 31, for which Arévalo recovered his party a day after he denounced a “coup d’état promoted by the institutions that should guarantee justice, headed by the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, the head of the FECI, the Seventh judge and the Board of Directors of Congress”.
In the act of handing over the credential, the president-elect stressed that the TSE magistrates have become a “bulwark to prevent attempts to assault the electoral authority from other State powers”, for which reason he stressed that their The action of initially opposing the suspension of his party until the electoral process was completed has meant a “central defense of the democratic values of our country”.