Global Courant
With the conclusion of the hearings to review the results, carried out with dignity, serenity and speed by the electoral boards, the provisional amparo issued by the Constitutional Court is fulfilled, at the request of nine parties —a procedure from which several disassociated themselves— . The variations in votes are tiny and do not significantly alter the preliminary figures already known since June 26. Any unfounded allegation of fraud is idle, malicious and even worse if some other type of goading against the constitutional order in force since 1986 is implicit in it.
The same can be said of subsequent appeals that seek to prolong the uncertainty and prevent the Supreme Electoral Tribunal from making the results official. If there are other judicial actions against the process led by said entity, an unprecedented legal limbo could be created, but dark conspiracy efforts would also be denoted, totally alien to the will of the citizenry. This would begin to have an impact on the business and investment climate. For this reason, the productive sectors of the country request that the names of the winners of the municipal, legislative and presidential elections be announced as soon as possible, which will go to the ballot.
Entities such as the Guatemalan American Chamber of Commerce consider it essential to respect the decision expressed by voters to guarantee the continuity of the rule of law, which in turn affects economic decision-making in the medium and long term. In other words, the maneuvers of certain political leaderships should not interfere with the development of national competitiveness, since then they would deny the postulates that the parties supposedly uphold.
The improvement in the perception of democracy, respect for citizen guarantees, the prevalence of legal principles and, above all, the fight against discretion and corruption are important factors for any company or nation that is considering Guatemala as a possible ally of business. It is impossible for there to be a good environment for commercial, industrial, and export development if the State does not grant certainty of legal and ethical conduct, and if not, just look at the Nicaraguan tragedy, whose tyrannical government even went so far as to ban business organizations just for demanding the fundamental respect for current regulations.
The Guatemalan institutional framework has been overshadowed by breaches such as the lack of election of a Supreme Court of Justice, which is three months away from completing a four-year extra term. The pro-government alliance in Congress pushed the issue aside through crude tactics. Citizens also need to begin to learn about the debates, contexts, advantages and disadvantages that the two parties that will participate in the second round of elections, next August 20, may raise.
Economic, productive, budgetary, and accounting policy is one of the issues to be addressed with maturity, seriousness, and a technical nature, not with sophistical spiel or cheap populism. The same can be said about the configuration of a future cabinet proposed by the parties that are going to the second round. Beyond alliances, pacts or exchanges of positions for support, clarity is needed about the actions to be taken during the first hundred days of the next administration in the areas of education, health, road infrastructure and communication, priority legislation and the expected fight against chronic and acute child malnutrition.
Period of electoral uncertainty must end
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