![]() “Prosecutors are currently raiding the offices of Bernardo Arevalo’s opposition party, Semilla.”Įarlier this month, top prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche - an ally of the attorney general -successfully petitioned a court to suspend the Seed Movement, effectively barring it from organising and campaigning.Ĭurruchiche accused the Seed party of alleged irregularities in its registration as a party. “In case you thought Guatemala’s August 20 presidential run-off was secure … it’s not,” Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a US-based think tank, said on Twitter. Tensions have continued to build in the Central American nation, where critics have accused authorities of attempting to suppress democracy and shape the upcoming electoral contest through harassment and legal action against perceived rivals. The TSE also issued a statement condemning the authorities’ actions as “disproportionate, intimidating and of excessive force”. In its request for an injunction, the TSE cited a “true, future and imminent threat” that government authorities may “violate the democratic rule of law”. The TSE certified the results of the first round of voting, held on June 25, earlier this month, after a review of ballot tallies requested by rival parties.īut since the TSE’s certification, the attorney general has raided its offices twice, most recently on Thursday, seizing voter information. The raid on the Seed Movement’s headquarters is the latest controversial move in a closely watched election, where observers fear democratic norms are being shattered.Īlso on Friday, Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) - the country’s highest electoral authority - appealed to the country’s Constitutional Court for an injunction against authorities including the attorney general, in order to guarantee election integrity. “What they are doing is illegal and spurious.” “The raid is an attempt to continue the intimidation and to try to scare us,” Arevalo told the Guatemalan newspaper La Prensa Libre. ![]() In the wake of Friday’s raid, Arevalo accused Guatemala’s attorney general’s office of “political persecution”. Guatemalan police have raided the offices of the progressive Movimiento Semilla or Seed Movement, a political party whose presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo defied expectations to advance to the second round of the country’s upcoming elections.
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