Skeptical Guatemalans vote amid threats to democracy

Guatemalans head to the polls on Sunday in an election already tainted by the government’s moves to disqualify any candidate competitive enough to threaten the status quo, in a series of attacks on the democratic order perpetrated by the political group led by President Alejandro Giammattei —  as The Brazilian Report has been explaining for weeks.

There will be 22 candidates on the presidential ballot, but not three of the most popular names. Electoral officials in Guatemala have barred four candidacies on shaky grounds, including the ticket led by center-right opposition businessman Carlos Pineda, who led the race in many opinion polls. 

The list of outcasts also includes the ticket of indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera and former human rights prosecutor Jordan Rodas. The slates led by Roberto Arzu and Óscar Rodolfo Castañeda were also eliminated from the race.

Mr. Rodas, now in exile in Spain, accuses President Giammattei of conducting a political witch hunt and says Sunday’s vote will be a “fraud.”

In addition to a new president, the nation’s 9.3 million voters will elect 160 lawmakers, 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), and hundreds of municipal seats.

Mr. Giammattei, a far-right leader sometimes referred to as “Central America’s Jair Bolsonaro,” has perpetuated — and exacerbated — Guatemala’s democratic woes. Under his watch, the country’s top prosecutor’s office has cracked down...