Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said on Friday evening that he would work to ensure an orderly transition of power to whomever voters elect today in the final round of a tense presidential election.
The comments address fears of election meddling after an effort to disqualify the front-runner’s party ahead of the run-off vote.
“I reiterate the commitment to promote an orderly, transparent and efficient transition process,” Giammattei said in an address to the nation.
Bernardo Arevalo, a reformist candidate running on an anti-corruption message, leads former first lady Sandra Torres by a large margin in polls ahead of today’s run-off.
Arevalo’s surprise second-place finish in June’s first round vote provoked demands for recounts by opponents.
A prosecutor then persuaded a court to suspend Arevalo’s party, threatening to sideline his bid.
Guatemala’s top court later reversed the ban.
In an interview published on Monday with online news site El Faro, Arevalo said he expected efforts to dispute his potential victory “from different sectors”.
“I have no doubt that between August 20 and (inauguration day) January 14, if we win the election, there will be a good number of attempts to prevent it from happening,” Arevalo said.
Giammattei, a conservative, said he would not stay in office “one minute longer” than January 14, the scheduled day to hand over power to the incoming elected government.
Earlier this month, Giammattei met the Organisation of American States chief Luis Almagro and expressed his commitment to ensuring peaceful elections, he said at the time in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.