Global Courant
Within hours of Guatemalans going to the polls to renew their authorities for the next four years, the signs of hauling voters increased, a practice that must meet certain characteristics to become a crime, as detailed in a press conference this Saturday. June 24 magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
Residents and politicians from various municipalities have denounced the hauling of voters throughout the day, even in one of them it was reported that several buses were retained by neighbors.
In Villa Nueva, for example, residents and mayoral candidates point out that the current mayor, Javier Gramajo, engages in illegalities to ensure the vote and his continuity in office.
Among the irregularities in Villa Nueva on social networks, there are reports of carting of voters and delivery of food to condition the vote.
In addition, in San José del Golfo, in the department of Guatemala, he was under tension this Saturday, June 24, after a group of neighbors intercepted buses and their passengers, whom they accused of coming from other places with the aim of voting tomorrow in the municipality.
Several videos captured by neighbors and disseminated on social networks document how the group of people is forcibly taken off a bus and it is heard how some neighbors react angrily to the apparent trap to favor one of the local candidates.
“We are going to burn them, burn the bus,” is heard in one of the videos, where a crowd recriminates the bus crew. “We are already tired of being stared at,” another neighbor is heard complaining.
Information also circulates on social networks that in San José La Arada, Chiquimula, there is a hauling of voters.
What does the TSE say?
Judge Gabriel Aguilera explained that the issue of hauling causes confusion among citizens and that candidates can offer transportation to their affiliates, because for the crime of hauling to be committed, certain illegalities must be incurred.
“When we talk about transport, the technical concept is electoral transhumance, and this is when a person from one municipality goes to vote in another, for example, but these are already cases that are investigated by the General Inspection (of the TSE), the transport that political groups lend their affiliates or their sympathizers to go vote at their polling stations, it is not hauling,” said Aguilera.
“In relation to hauling we have the accompaniment of the Inspection to carry out inspections, but let’s remember that this assumption occurs only when the person has cast their vote, we cannot think of hauling today in advance, tomorrow during the course of election day because that is precisely it will be determined when he casts his vote, whether or not it appears in the register,” said magistrate Ranulfo Rafael Rojas.
He added that “the assumption of the hauling is quite practical to determine, but the Inspection will be making these verifications and in previous events when these detections have been made, the Inspection documents them and takes the appropriate actions that in this case if the assumption occurs later it is transferred to the Public Ministry so that it can proceed accordingly”.
The electoral transhumance or acaerro of voters covers three offenses: material falsehood, ideological falsehood with electoral aggravation or perjury.
Guatemala will decide this Sunday its future for the next four years with the holding of general elections, in elections where its new president, vice president and 160 deputies to Congress for the period 2024-2028 will be defined.
The 9.3 million Guatemalans empowered to cast their vote will also define the new Central American Parliament (20 legislators) and 340 new municipal corporations.
The electoral process has been the most controversial since the implantation of democracy in 1986 and was soiled in the last week with the accusations disclosed by the American media New York Times, which detail allegations of bribery of Supreme Court magistrates Electoral (TSE).
To this is added the arbitrary expulsion by the TSE, according to experts, of three candidates with the possibility of winning the election: the indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera, the son of former president Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen (1996-2000), Roberto Arzú García Granados, and businessman Carlos Pineda, leader of the polls.
According to the same source, there are 24,427 polling stations so that the 9.3 million registered Guatemalans can cast their vote on the five printed ballots that will be delivered individually.
Said ballots are to elect a president, deputies to Congress by national list, deputies to Congress by region, deputies to the Central American Parliament and municipal mayors.
In Guatemala City, in the center of the country, is where the largest number of voting centers are concentrated, since 2.1 million people are authorized to vote in the metropolitan area.
Similarly, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has 17 polling stations in 10 states of the United States, where there are 90,000 compatriots registered to vote. However, low participation is expected as on past occasions.
The elections are held in the midst of an environment of uncertainty and apathy where 13.5 percent of the population plans to vote void, according to the Free Free Press Survey.
With information from EFE
