Just days after Guatemala’s President Otto Perez Molina stepped down and went to prison — charged with corruption and fraud — the country heads to the polls Sunday to choose between more than a dozen candidates to replace him. But many in the nation are planning to mark “null” on their ballots or boycott the proceedings altogether, arguing that there is currently too much violence and corruption in the electoral system for fair proceedings to take place.
A rallying cry on social media and in the streets has been “en estas condiciones no queremos elecciones,” or “under these conditions, we don’t want elections.” Many Guatemalans say the elections are illegitimate because loose campaign finance laws allow money from organized crime and drug cartels to influence the process, and because millions of Guatemalan citizens living outside the country are disenfranchised.
One of them is Maria Luisa Rosal. She came to the U.S. from Guatemala as a child in the mid-1980s, after her father was kidnapped and disappeared and her mother received repeated death threats, during the country’s internal armed conflict. Today, she remains a Guatemalan citizen and active participant in Guatemalan social movements for peace and justice, but is barred from casting a ballot.
“We don’t even recognize the legitimacy of these elections,” Rosal told ThinkProgress. “Holding elections this weekend is pretending the country isn’t going through a profound crisis. They’re trying to make voting the only expression of political participation, but we reject that idea.”
This week, Rosal joined dozens of Guatemalan groups and individuals in signing a letter to the Organization of American States demanding they pressure the Guatemalan government to suspend elections until crucial reforms are made, or denounce them as illegitimate — though she acknowledged the body has “no teeth.”
The candidates Guatemalans must choose from Sunday include Manuel Baldizón, a staunch ally of the President just arrested on corruption charges; Zury Rios, the daughter of a former military commander currently on trial for genocide; and Jimmy Morales, a comedian with no political experience.
“People are trying to vote for the least worst candidate,” said Rosal. “But that way, you’re only legitimizing an oppressive system that has only benefitted the oligarchs and the multinational corporations. These candidates are not representative of the people. So even if the elections do go through, I think the vast majority of people will not recognize the results.”
Many other countries in Latin America — including Ecuador, Mexico, and most recently El Salvador — allow their citizens living abroad to vote either by mail or at their local consulate.
“Our Constitutional Court said that Guatemalans in the diaspora should have the right to elect at least the president and vice president, but the Congress never approved the reform,” said Rosal. “The diaspora should have a voice, at the very least because we sustain the country economically. Remittances are one of the principle forms of income in Guatemala. Beyond that, it’s an inherent right that doesn’t go away with migration.”
If no candidates wins 50 percent this weekend, a runoff election will be held in late October.