Null votes and blank ballots trend in Guatemalan elections. (Photo: PL)

Guatemala City, Jun 26 (RHC) The 17.5 percent of null votes appear Monday as the symbolic leader in the general elections in Guatemala, with 55 percent of the counted ballots (13,649).

The Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission system also registers another element of indifference with the process pointed out before the election day, the 7.13 percent of blank ballots.

In the race for the Presidency, Sandra Torres, of the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza, accumulates 14.96 percent, followed by the surprising Bernardo Arévalo, of Semilla (12.20), and Manuel Conde, of the ruling party Vamos (8.15 percent).

Another aspirant who is also ahead of precontest favorites, placing fourth with 7.39 percent, is Armando Castillo, of Viva, while Edmont Mulet, of Cabal, is behind with (6.96) and Zury Ríos, of Valor-Unionista, sixth (6.67).

Analysts called to wait for the voting statistics to advance more to speak of a definitive tendency because significant counts are still missing, especially in the most remote departments.

After a campaign tinged by the exclusion of candidates and the persecution of the press, the attention still revolves at this hour around the Gran Tikal Futura in the capital, the headquarters of the information center of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

Sunday reported five violent incidents, two of them confrontations between residents and police who fired tear gas to dissolve protests for alleged anomalies.

According to the electoral entity, in the municipality of San José del Golfo, northeast of this capital, voting was suspended, as well as in San Martín Zapotitlán, south of Guatemala City.

The votes in this Central American territory will define a new president, vice-president, 160 deputies to the Congress, 20 to the Central American Parliament, and 340 municipal mayors for the period 2024-2028. If any of the candidates does not obtain 50 percent plus one of the votes, there will be a second round on Sunday, August 20, in which the two candidates with the majority of ballots in the first round will participate.

Since 1985, when Guatemala began the democratic era, no candidate for the highest office of the State achieved an absolute majority of the valid votes in the first round. (Source: PL)