Bernardo Arevalo: Guatemala electoral body upholds victory
August 29, 2023
The center-left candidate's party had reportedly been disqualified in the presidential election, but the electoral tribunal has reaffirmed his runoff victory.
Arevalo is the son of a former president Juan Jose Arevalo and has campaigned on an anti-corruption platformImage: Pilar Olivares/REUTERS
Advertisement
Guatemala's Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Monday reaffirmed center-left candidate Bernardo Arevalo's victory in the presidential election.
However, another government body suspended all activities of his Movimiento Semilla, or Seed Movement party which led to confusion as to whether he would eventually be able to take office.
Arevalo said the suspension was illegal and the party would present an appeal the following day.
"The Semilla Movement will not give up," Arevalo said, slamming what he called political persecution against his party and his candidacy.
Doubts raised about Arevalo's victory
Officials from the electoral tribunal officially declared Bernardo Arevalo as the victor during a press conference.
Irma Palencia, the head of the electoral tribunal, clarified that the cited document originated from a lower authority.
"These are the official results, and that's what counts in Guatemala," tribunal magistrate Gabriel Aguilera said.
Who is Bernardo Arevalo?
Arevalo is the son of a former president Juan Jose Arevalo and emerged as a surprise frontrunner. He campaigned for social development and vowed to fight corruption.
Arevalo did not secure enough votes for a decisive win in the first vote and headed towards a second round of voting. He managed secure 60.9% of valid votes cast.to the 37.2% received by former first lady Sandra Torres,
Arevalo and other political opponents have faced legal challenges in recent days. The Organization of American States' human rights commission had asked Guatemala to provide protection for Aravelo earlier this week, after reports emerged of an attempt to kill him.
#VotoConSentido: using radio to promote the right to vote
COMUNICARES, DW Akademie's partner in Guatemala, encourages citizen participation and critical voting in national elections with the #VotoConSentido campaign, a result of the AMI Information and Journalism Community.
Image: COMUNICARES
Training tour in Guatemala's interior
COMUNICARES, together with DW Akademie, promotes Media and Information Literacy (MIL) among community communicators in Guatemala’s rural areas. It all started with the MIL Community of Information and Journalism (CIPA, in Spanish), which has trained dozens of local media members to explore new dialogue formats with their audiences.
Image: COMUNICARES
Close communication that transforms
Often, people working in community media do not have professional communications training, which hinders their program's success in informing their audiences. Training initiatives like CIPA allow them to transform the way they communicate, reach out to audiences and build media skills through their local media.
Image: COMUNICARES
Encourage citizen participation
During CIPA training, the communicators expressed their wish to encourage more active audiences. With this objective, COMUNICARES trained 48 participants from 31 local media and helped four local media implement projects that encourage audience engagement. This learning was the first step on the road to #VotoConSentido.
Image: COMUNICARES
Main concern: elections
Continuing along that path, COMUNICARES gathered information from the communicators participating in CIPA. They found that amain concern was Guatemala's national elections, from a lack of candidate transparency shortly before voting to electoral decision-making.
Image: COMUNICARES
Constructing a comprehensive campaign
COMUNICARES then visited six partner radio stations in the Guatemalan departments of Totonicapán, Petén, Chimaltenango and Quiché. They mentored against misinformation and jointly developed the #VotoConSentido campaign: from the topics to be addressed and the needs of radio stations during election season to ideas to involve the audience more.
Image: COMUNICARES
Final details before the launch of #VotoConSentido
In March 2023, a one-week meeting was held with representatives of the six allied radio stations and the COMUNICARES team. During those days they discussed MIL's importance in fostering critical analysis.
Image: COMUNICARES
#VoteWithMeaning: it's time to elect
Between April and August 2023, the month of Guatemala's final elections, COMUNICARES and the project's partner radio stations, with DW Akademie's support, produced analysis programs, opinion pieces and radio and social media pieces, both in Spanish and in the five local languages of the participating radio stations. Now, let's vote with meaning!
