Conservative Alejandro Giammattei Wins Guatemala’s Presidential Elections

Conservative Alejandro Giammattei has been elected as Guatemala’s new president in a run-off on Sunday. He defeated former first lady and social democrat, Sandra Torres. Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Council confirmed that Giammattei had about fifty-eight percent of the votes, compared to about forty-two percent for Torres. With an estimated eight million registered voters in Guatemala, the turnout was forty-five percent which appears to suggest widespread disillusionment with the political status quo in general.” Reports from Guatemala say that the presidential campaign was marked by a chaotic succession of judicial decisions, intrigues, illegal party changes and accusations of bad practices that truncated the candidacies of two of the three presidential favorites. Giammattei takes office on January fourteenth and will most immediately face the task of attempting to stem the large flow of migrants headed toward the United States. Giammattei succeeds President Jimmy Morales.