A little respite for the Semilla political formation of the elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arevalo. The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) temporarily lifted, on Sunday, September 3, the disqualification of Semilla which had been obtained by the prosecution earlier this week.

“The resolution (…) issued by the Director of the Citizen Registry is suspended until the conclusion of the electoral process” on October 31, the TSE ordered in a resolution read by its spokesman, Luis Gerardo Ramirez. “It is neither reasonable nor prudent to expose the validity of political organizations (…) until the electoral process is completed,” adds the TSE resolution which called for “respect for the popular will expressed in the ballot boxes”.

The Directorate of the Citizens Register depends on the TSE but operates autonomously. If the TSE has already validated the victory of Mr. Arevalo, the elected president must still, among other formalities, receive his credentials before the end of the electoral process.

Court battle

This news is only one step in the legal battle initiated against the Semilla party by the public prosecutor, who, on Monday, August 28, had obtained from the management of the Citizens’ Register its provisional suspension. Judge Fredy Orellana had ordered the TSE, at the request of prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, to suspend the party and investigate alleged anomalies regarding the registration of members when it was formed in 2017.

The suspension decision was strongly criticized by the United States but also by the European Union (EU), which denounced “the persistent attempts to undermine the results of the elections through selective and arbitrary legal and procedural actions”. In Washington, the head of the electoral mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Guatemala, Eladio Loizaga, also warned on Friday of a possible “rupture of the constitutional order in Guatemala”.

If the loss of the legal status of the Semilla party, at the head of which Mr. Arevalo won the presidential election of August 20 hands down on a promise to fight against corruption, could not prevent his investiture on January 14, it did however limit the action of its twenty-three new deputies in Parliament: chairmanship of committees, fundraising, registration of new members.

The president-elect had denounced Friday “a coup d’etat promoted by the institutions which should guarantee justice in our country”. Mr. Arevalo also implicated Attorney General Consuelo Porras. The latter as well as MM. Orellana and Curruchiche are on a US list of “corrupt” actors.

On Saturday, the prosecution defended itself from these accusations: “It is totally false [to say] that the public prosecutor is participating in a coup process as the elected president did irresponsibly”, he said. he said in a statement.

A “high value” decision

“The TSE’s decision to end the suspension of our party brings serenity to this crucial moment in history, when democracy is fighting its best battle, supported by the honest and upright people of this country,” said, from his side, to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Nino Matute, member of Semilla and municipal councilor in the capital.

According to the deputy of Semilla, Raul Barrera, “even if its effects are only temporary, this resolution has great value”. “The Plenary Assembly of TSE Magistrates expressly requests (…) to guarantee the transfer of power to elected officials”, he wrote on the social network X (ex-Twitter).

Prosecutors Porras and Curruchiche are also leading an internationally criticized crusade against judges, prosecutors and journalists who have fought corruption in the country. Guatemala is mired in a spiral of poverty, violence and corruption, evils that push thousands of Guatemalans to emigrate each year, especially to the United States. The election of Mr Arevalo, a 64-year-old sociologist and social democrat MP, ends a twelve-year cycle of right-wing governments in one of the thirty most corrupt countries in the world according to the NGO Transparency International