Global Courant
Sandra Torres Casanova assured this Monday, June 26, that she is “happy” and “happy” for the first place she holds in the Guatemalan presidential elections, after more than 68% of the polling stations have been counted.
“I am very grateful, first with God and then with the people who have always backed and supported us,” she said at a press conference at a Guatemala City hotel.
Torres Casanova adds around 14.89% of the votes, after 68% of the polling stations have been counted, equivalent to approximately 2.5 million ballots.
“We are going to win, against whoever it is,” she added, referring to the second round of elections, scheduled for August 20.
Bernardo Arevalo
The left-wing candidate Bernardo Arévalo de León aims to be the big surprise in the elections, with second place so far, adding 12.39% of the votes.
Arévalo de León, 64, ranked eighth in the latest polls released this week, but in the count he remains in second and therefore would be Torres Casanova’s rival.
Arévalo pointed out that they have carried out “a contact campaign, an ant campaign, from house to house.”
“We knew that we were going much further (than the polls said) and it has been a pleasant surprise and our invitation is to recover politics for decent people,” he said.
He added that “the Seed Movement is calm because we have a government plan, and secondly they are not people who have been involved in party politics.”
He assures that, if they reach the Presidency, they will fight against corruption and that they will ask for advice from people who have advocated on the issue, but who have had to leave the country.
Meanwhile, Edmond Mulet of the Cabal party called a conference, but canceled it at the last minute. Zury Ríos of the Valor Unionista coalition did not comment.
Other contenders
The third place so far and the one who seeks to sneak into the second position is the lawyer Manuel Conde, from the official party, Vamos, and who accumulates 8.17% of the votes.
The polls released in recent weeks and days predicted a fight for second place between the former diplomat Edmond Mulet and the daughter of the coup dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, Zury Ríos Sosa.
However, Ríos Sosa and Mulet are located, at 50% of the ballot count, with 6.6% and 6.9% of votes, respectively.
A total of 9.3 million citizens were authorized to cast their votes this Sunday in the 3,482 voting centers administered by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
In addition to the president and vice president for the period 2024-2028, Guatemalans also elected this Sunday their new Congress (160 deputies), the Central American Parliament (20 legislators) and 340 municipal corporations.
