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Caribbean & Central America - July 2011
GUATEMALA: Courts take centre stage in electoral contest
The main battle ahead of the 11 September presidential elections, the fourth since the 1996 peace accords ended Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, is being fought not between the candidates, but between one candidate, former First Lady Sandra Torres and the judiciary. Torres is fighting the supreme electoral tribunal (TSE)’s decision to disqualify her on the grounds that her April divorce, designed to beat the constitutional ban (Art. 186) on the candidacies of any close relatives of the incumbent running for the presidency [RC-11-04], was fraudulent. Having so far failed in her appeals before the TSE, the criminal appeals court and the supreme justice court (CSJ), Torres is currently taking her case to the highest court of appeal, the constitutional court (CC). The battle has been a test of the country’s much criticized judicial institutions and so far they have stood up well.
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