Preliminary results indicate that the presidential elections held in Guatemala on Sunday are heading toward a runoff in August, showing a lead for the center-left and significant disappointment among voters due to the exclusion of a candidate who was considered the frontrunner. The competition will need to be decided in a second round of voting between former first lady Sandra Torres, who, according to the results, will not secure over 50 percent plus one vote to clinch victory, and her closest competitors.
Torres is competing against more than 20 candidates for the presidency, including seasoned diplomat Edmund Mulet and Zury Ríos, daughter of the late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. Preliminary results, after 40 percent of the votes were counted, show that Torres's National Unity of Hope party (center-left) garnered 15 percent of the votes, compared to 12.2 percent for the Semilla party, which also belongs to the center-left.
However, voters expressed dissatisfaction with the electoral process and the decision to exclude businessman Carlos Pineda, who was regarded as the likely candidate, by either nullifying their votes or leaving their ballots blank in at least 25 percent of the voting cards. Pineda urged his supporters to nullify their votes following a ruling declaring him ineligible to compete.
