Guatemalan elections: Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arévalo head to second round

With 84% of the tally sheets processed, Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arévalo emerged as the top candidates in the first round of Guatemala’s elections on June 25.

Preliminary results indicate that Torres, representing the National Unity of Hope Party (UNE), received 15% of the votes, while Arévalo, from the Seed Movement, secured 12.2%.

Arévalo’s performance has been a surprise, as he was not considered a frontrunner in pre-election polls.

In contrast, Torres is vying for the Guatemalan presidency for the third consecutive time.

As no candidate obtained 50% of votes to win in the first round, Torres and Arévalo will compete in a run-off election on August 20.

Manuel Conde, candidate of the Vamos Party and the incumbent president Alejandro Giammattei’s party, secured third place with 7.9% of the votes.

Armando Castillo of the Viva party followed him with 7.4%.

Edmond Mulet of the Cabal Party and Zury Ríos of the Valor Unionista coalition received 6.9% and 6.7% of the votes, respectively.

Both Mulet and Ríos were considered strong contenders according to pre-election polls.

The elections witnessed a 59.7% citizen participation rate among the registered 9.3 million Guatemalans, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

However, the abstention rate of over 40% is higher than in previous elections (39% in 2019 and 29% in 2015).

Despite the presence of 22 presidential pairs, the elections were marred by the exclusion of four candidates, including Carlos Pineda, Thelma Cabrera, and Roberto Arzú, who urged their supporters to cast null votes days before the elections.

The preliminary count revealed that 17.37% of the votes were null, and 7.03% were blank.

Analysts view this as a reflection of citizen discontent in an election process that experienced disturbances in various polling stations.

In addition to the presidential election, the population also voted for 340 mayors, 160 deputies, and 20 deputies of the Central American Parliament.

Profiles:

Sandra Torres, 67, served as the first lady of Guatemala from 2008 to 2011 during her ex-husband Álvaro Colom’s presidency.

This marks her third presidential candidacy, having previously run in 2015 and 2019 but losing to Jimmy Morales and Alejandro Giammattei, respectively.

Torres faced accusations of illicit electoral financing, but the case was closed in 2022 due to insufficient evidence.

She holds a degree in Communication Sciences from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Universidad Rafael Landívar.

Bernardo Arévalo, 64, is the son of former Guatemalan President Juan José Arévalo Bermejo, who governed from 1945 to 1951.

He has been a member of the Guatemalan Congress since January 2020, representing the political party Movimiento Semilla.

Arévalo, who tweeted that his aim was not to win the polls but the elections, served as the Guatemalan ambassador to Spain (1995-1996) and vice minister of Foreign Affairs (1994-1995) during the government of Ramiro de León Carpio.

He holds a degree in Sociology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Social Anthropology from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.