The Diplomat
The Spanish government yesterday expressed its rejection of the raid since Friday by officials from Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor’s Office (Fiscalía) on the headquarters of the country’s Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to seize the minutes of the presidential elections.
Since the Seed Movement of candidate Bernardo Arévalo achieved surprising results – compared to what the polls predicted – in the first round of the elections held on 25 June, the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office has carried out various actions to challenge the results or outlaw the political party, actions that have been condemned at the international level.
In line with this position, the Spanish government has expressed its condemnation of the actions of the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office, which it considers “intentionally aimed at replacing the functions of the High Electoral Court and questioning the results of the Guatemalan electoral process”, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the communiqué, the department headed by José Manuel Albares demands an end to the “persistent questioning by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the official pronouncements of both the competent bodies on the electoral process and those made by the various Electoral Observation Missions that declared the cleanliness of the observed elections”.
Finally, the communiqué stresses that “the will of the Guatemalan people, expressed at the ballot box, must be respected”.
