12/9/2023 0 Comments Tribunal supremo electoralHe added: “There is a process of political persecution illegally utilizing justice system institutions against the Semilla Movement and against our candidacy.”Įfforts to suspend Semilla date back to early July, minutes before the first-round vote certification, when the Public Prosecutor’s Office obtained a court order for allegations of signature forgery and money laundering. in the Hilton Garden Hotel in Guatemala City, surrounded by a stern presidential security detail. “From this moment on, nothing can legally stop us from being sworn in on January 14, just as is constitutionally established,” President-Elect Bernardo Arévalo told the press at 8:30 p.m. “It usually freezes some of the party’s rights until they resolve the administrative problem, but the party continues to legally exist.”Īrévalo and Vice President-Elect Karin Herrera draw a legal distinction between their victory and the suspension of the party. “In the worst of cases, assuming that they will suspend Semilla, suspension is an administrative sanction intended for parties to correct some violation of electoral law,” he added. “A criminal court judge cannot get involved in electoral affairs because election law is of a special constitutional status.” “This order is illegal,” constitutional lawyer Édgar Ortiz told El Faro English. In a press conference announcing the vote certification, the TSE magistrates said they were unaware of the registrar’s decision before it was made public and declined to stake out any stance on the matter in order to avoid sullying their ruling on an appeal. “In the current scenario, which is outside the framework of the law, they can take all sorts of action totally afoul of the Electoral Law of Political Parties in order to prevent us from taking office,” Guerrero added. “If necessary, we will again resort to the Inter-American Commission, to later take to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.” ![]() “We are preparing to take administrative, criminal law, and constitutional measures,” Semilla attorney Juan Gerardo Guerrero told El Faro English. If local legal avenues are exhausted, they say they will move on to the international arena. on Tuesday and has promised, if necessary, to make its case to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. Semilla said it will appeal to the TSE magistrates at 7 a.m. Six weeks later, he carried out that very same order. His eventual approval of the suspension has been expected since early July, and the ensuing legal fight is likely to sprawl out over the next half-year.ĭuring a press conference on July 13, 2023, Citizen Registrar Ramiro Muñoz of the Guatemalan Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced that he would not obey a judge's illegal order to suspend the Semilla party. Muñoz spent three weeks on leave as threats of prosecution against him arose and even reached his deputy registrar, and as prosecutors and armed police raided the Tribunal. The Monday order was also a stark reversal of course for the registrar, who refused six weeks ago to carry out the illegal order. The official, Citizen Registrar Ramiro Muñoz, argued that immunity from suspension during election season should not apply because “the second-round election has already been held.” The ruling defied a Supreme Court injunction in favor of Semilla to shield the party through October 31, when -as TSE President Irma Palencia publicly underscored yesterday- election season officially ends. ![]() With 137 days left until the January 14 transfer of power, he is clearly far from out of the woods. ![]() Guatemala, translated from Nahuatl, means roughly “the land of many trees.” Just three hours before Bernardo Arévalo was officially declared president-elect by the Electoral Supreme Tribunal (TSE) on Monday evening, a top official from the same electoral authority approved the suspension of his party. El Faro is an investigative newsroom that shines a light on corruption in Central America.
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