Guatemala: Outsider Defeats Traditional Politicians
In elections with less abstention than expected, Jimmy Morales, the filmmaker candidate for a nationalist center party, will run in the second round of the presidential election with an opponent who has yet to be chosen.
Monday, September 7, 2015
The 2015 elections in Guatemala saw the participation of 65% of eligible voters, which is auspicious in light of calls for abstention from different social sectors. Blank votes will not exceed 4% of those cast.
Confirming his rapid rise in the polls in the last six months, Jimmy Morales won 24% of Guatemalan votes, when votes from 97% of the polling stations had been counted, ensuring the candidate of the Frente de Convergencia Nacional (FCN Nación) party a definite place in the presidential election runoffs.
On the other side of the ballot paper, there was a tie between Sandra Torres from the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (National Unity of Hope party or UNE), and Manuel Baldizón, of the Renewed Democratic Freedom party (known as Lider), although recent data from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) gives the lead for the former.
Jimmy Morales holds a degree in Business Administration and Masters in Strategic Studies in Security and Defense, is professionally dedicated to acting as a comedian and television producer. He began his political career in 2011 appearing unsuccessfully as a candidate for the mayoral office of Mixco. In his initial statements after the elections, he noted his intention to fight corruption, and to convene a National Constituent Assembly.
Impact of elections on business
Neither the political crisis that culminated in the resignation of former President Otto Perez Molina, or the results of these elections, have had a significant impact on short-term business in Guatemala, beyond the state's fiscal problems which have worsened in recent years.
On August 11, Guatemalans will go for the second time to the polls, in a climate of uncertainty, tension and roadblocks, because of dissatisfaction with the results of the first round of elections and the recent immigration agreement signed with the United States.
One month before the presidential elections in Guatemala, the Constitutional Court decided to remove from the election Zury Ríos and Thelma Aldana, two of the candidates with the highest voting intentions among the population.
The country's electoral process has been turbulent, since Zury Ríos and Thelma Aldana, presidential candidates who from the beginning headed the voting intentions for the 2019 General Elections, had multiple difficulties.
Jimmy Morales, the candidate for the National Convergence Front, won the presidential runoff beating his opponent Sandra Torres by more than a million votes.
With nearly of 70% of the votes, the next president of Guatemala will be a candidate who represents the hopes of a population that has shown itself to be fed up with traditional politicians and widespread corruption in the state.
Despite several complaints of irregularities and the most voted-for opposition candidates refusing to recognize his victory, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua will serve a second consecutive term.
After scrutinizing 85% of the polls, Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council announced that interim results indicated that the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSNL) and its candidate Daniel Ortega had garnered 62.56% of the total vote, while his closest follower, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and its candidate, liberal businessman Fabio Gadea, had only 30.87%.
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