Bernardo Arevalo Leads Voting Intention in Guatemala

On Wednesday, a survey carried out by CID Gallup for the Freedom and Development Foundation showed that the candidate Bernardo Arevalo leads the voting intention towards the Guatemalan presidency's runoff that will take place on August 20.

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Arevalo, who participates sponsored by the progressive Seed Movement party (Semilla), monopolizes 63 percent of citizen preferences. Sandra Torres, the presidential candidate of the National Unity of Hope (UNE), only reaches 37 percent.

The data comes from a survey carried out between July 18 and 27, which has a sample of 1,242 citizens interviewed throughout the country and a margin of error of 2.8 percent.

Around 67 percent of those surveyed said they had a positive image of the social democratic candidate Arevalo, while only 44 percent said they had a favorable appreciation of the conservative politician Torres.

Regarding the question about what is the country's most urgent problem, 18 percent of Guatemalans said that it is corruption. According to the data, 58 percent of those surveyed believe that Arevalo has the capacity to resolve corruption, while only 11 percent believe that Torres could do so.

On August 16, the Freedom and Development Foundation will publish a second poll prior to the second round of elections, in which Arevalo and Torres are expected to compete.

Until now, however, the panorama of Guatemalan democracy is tarnished due to the attempts of the Prosecutor's Office to disqualify the Seed Movement for an alleged case of false signatures during its registration in 2018.