Guatemala: Arevalo calls bid to annul victory 'perverse'

Guatemala's President-elect Bernardo Arevalo on Friday slammed a bid by the prosecutor's office to invalidate his win in an August runoff election, calling allegations of irregularities "absurd, ridiculous and perverse." 

The Central American country's electoral court also called the results "unchangeable."

The investigations brought against Arevalo by the attorney general's office are widely seen in Guatemala as an alarmed reaction by the country's political establishment elite to his pledges to combat corruption in the country.

What are the accusations made by prosecutors?

Attorney General Consuelo Porras and senior prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche have been spearheading efforts to undermine Arevalo's victory, among other things alleging irregularities in the registration of his center-left Seed Movement party several years ago.

Porras, Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana, who wanted to see the party suspended, are all on a US list of "corrupt actors," and their actions have provoked mass demonstrations by Guatemalans calling for their resignation.

On Friday, prosecutor Leonor Morales said the election of Arevalo, his vice president and parliamentarians was "null and void," with investigations allegedly showing that there had been "anomalies" in the vote count in the first round in June.

What have Arevalo and the electoral court said?

At a press conference on Friday, Arevalo said, "This attempted coup is real and it has brought us to a crucial moment."

"The coup perpetrators are trying to destroy the democratic regime and put an end to the basic right of Guatemalans to live in freedom," he added.

He called on Guatemalans to "energetically defend" the country from the bid to impede his taking office on January 14 as scheduled.

The head of Guatemala's top electoral court, Blanca Alfaro, said that no repeat of the election would be held, calling the results of the August runoff "unalterable."  

She said preventing Arevalo from taking office after he had been duly elected would be "a break in the constitutional order."

 Support from abroad

The United States, the European Union, the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS) have all expressed concern over the events in Guatemala.

The OAS secretariat said in a statement that it "condemns the attempted coup d'etat by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Guatemala."

"The attempt to annul this year's general elections constitutes the worst form of democratic breakdown and the consolidation of a political fraud against the will of the people," the statement added.

The OAS called on outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei, the constitutional and supreme courts and Congress "to defend the institutions and constitutional order of the country by taking action against the perpetrators of this attack in order to preserve democracy in Guatemala."

Giammattei's government has issued a statement saying that the transition to Arevalo was inevitable, but stopped short of directly criticizing prosecutors.

More than half of Guatemalans are living in poverty, according to World Bank data, with thousands leaving their homeland every year to seek a better life, often in the United States. Many blame corruption for the country's economic situation.

tj/ab (Reuters, AFP)