Guatemala’s high court steps into election, suspends release of official results

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala's highest court has suspended the release of official election results, granting a temporary injunction to 10 parties that challenged the results of the June 25 vote.

The Constitutional Court late Saturday called for a new hearing to review the contested tallies in no more than five days.

Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arévalo had emerged from a field of nearly two dozen presidential hopefuls in the first round of voting.

Since neither came close to the 50% threshold, they were expected to compete in an August 20 runoff to determine Guatemala's next president.

Arévalo in particular from the progressive Seed Movement party was a surprise, as he had not been polling among the leading candidates. Torres, the candidate for the conservative UNE party, is making her third bid for the presidency.

Essentially, the court wants to compare the tallies that were put into the electoral system with the ones from the polling places themselves to make sure they match. If necessary, the court said that it would order a new count of challenged ballots.

Constitutional lawyer Alejandro Balsells said a recount should be avoided for the good of the process. The temporarily formed panels that count the votes at each polling station on election day are the ones who count should matter.

Practically speaking, it means that a week after the election, results remain unofficial for president, vice president, all of the seats in Congress, and hundreds of local elected positions across the country.

Among the parties challenging the results are those of three candidates who were polling among the leaders before election day, but ended up getting less than 8% of the vote each. However, Torres' party also asked for a review of the voting tallies.

Dozens of people protested outside the court Saturday night, demanding that their votes be respected and not determined by the courts.

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