Conservative businessman Carlos Pineda lost his final appeal to continue his campaign, one month before voting starts.
The Constitutional Court of Guatemala has ruled to end the presidential campaign of dark horse candidate Carlos Pineda, with only one month remaining before voting begins.
Pineda, a conservative businessman with a strong social media following, had appealed to the country’s highest court after a judge suspended his candidacy a week ago, citing noncompliance with the country’s election laws.
But the Constitutional Court on Friday upheld the lower court’s ruling, which found that Pineda failed to collect signatures from party delegates and file required financial reports, as required in the nomination process.
That decision provoked a fiery response from Pineda, who had recently emerged as the frontrunner in one election poll.
“Corruption won, Guatemala lost,” Pineda wrote in one social media post.
In another, he said the Constitutional Court had endorsed “electoral fraud” with its ruling: “We are left without democracy!!”
Pineda is the third candidate so far to be disqualified from the presidential race, with the first round of voting scheduled for June 25.
His disqualification follows that of fellow conservative Roberto Arzú on Thursday.
Earlier this year, a left-leaning Indigenous candidate, Thelma Cabrera, was likewise barred from the race after her running mate, former human rights official Jordán Rodas, was deemed ineligible.
Rodas had allegedly failed to produce a letter confirming he had no legal proceedings pending against him, leading a court to rule that his whole ticket — including Cabrera — could not register for the elections.
Critics have decried the disqualifications as politically motivated, intended to weed out candidates seen as unfavourable to the government establishment.
On Twitter, Juan Pappier, acting deputy director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, denounced Friday’s ruling as a “clear instrumentalization of the judiciary to guarantee an ‘electoral’ result”.
The administration of outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei has already been accused of stifling dissent in Guatemala.
Earlier this month, ElPeriodico, a 27-year-old investigative news outlet, said it was “forced” to cease its daily publications after “persecution” against its staff “intensified”. Its founder, José Rubén Zamora, had previously been arrested on charges of money laundering and blackmail.
And under Giammattei, an estimated 30 legal experts and anti-corruption officials — including judges and lawyers — have fled the country after his administration pursued investigations against them.
Many of these figures have links to the now-shuttered International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), an independent organisation backed by the United Nations to root out corruption in the country.
Giammattei is not eligible for reelection in June’s race, but his conservative party, Vamos, has a candidate competing: Manuel Conde. No Guatemalan political party, however, has ever succeeded in winning back-to-back presidential elections.
On Wednesday, days before his disqualification, Pineda had topped a poll ranking presidential candidates. He led with 22-percent support among voters. On his heels was former First Lady Sandra Torres with 20 percent, followed by Zury Ríos — the daughter of former military leader Efraín Ríos Montt — and diplomat Edmond Mulet.
Some 30 political parties are expected to compete. Pineda represented the Prosperidad Ciudadana — or “Citizen Prosperity” — party.
