The left-wing candidate Bernardo Arévalo de León unexpectedly slipped into the second round of elections in Guatemala, beating the traditional candidates with a strong urban vote, in elections marked by abstentionism.
Arévalo de León, according to preliminary results, reached 623,000 votes, 12.2 percent of the votes, with 92 percent of the tables processed and with victories in the districts of the country with the largest mixed-race and urban population.
In Guatemala City, in the center of the country, Arévalo, from the Seed Movement, found his greatest strength with 166,309 votes in his favor, that is, 23 percent of those cast in the metropolis.
At the national level, the only one capable of defeating Arévalo was the former first lady, Sandra Torres (2008-2012) and who will compete for the third consecutive time in a second round.
“Arévalo’s case is difficult to explain, but he is a candidate who, despite unfavorable polls, demonstrated his level of growth in the city in the last 15 days of the electoral campaign,” political scientist Hugo Novales explained to EFE.
Arévalo, before the election, was in the eighth position of intention to vote, according to the polls carried out prior to Sunday’s day.
Favorite candidates fell behind at the polls
The surprise candidate left out the conservative candidate Zury Ríos Sosa, daughter of the coup dictator Ríos Montt, and former United Nations official Edmond Mulet, who together accounted for 19 percent of the intention to vote, according to said polls.
Ríos Sosa, who had carried out an expensive electoral campaign and who, according to experts, was positioned among the favorites, finished far from the leaders with 336,711 votes, in fifth place.
The candidate “started with an advantage due to her critical stance and promises of security, however she lost and I think some sectors inflated her true chances of appearing,” Novales opined.
For his part, the current deputy and candidate of the government party, Manuel Conde, stayed in third position with 7.3 percent of the votes cast.
“His strategy of making alliances with municipal mayors in the interior of the country worked,” added the political scientist.
Abstentionism, the great factor
Lastly, from Novales’ point of view, abstentionism was one of the key elements of electoral day in Guatemala.
Data from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) show that 41.3 percent of the electorate did not go to the polls this Sunday.
In the same way, the null vote was another great protagonist of the day, accounting for 17.4 percent, more than the votes received by the leader Torres Casanova.
2023-06-26 20:26:39
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