Guatemala President-Elect's Party Suspended By Electoral Authorities

President-elect Bernardo Arévalo's party, Movimiento Semilla, was suspended Thursday by Guatemala's electoral body, Citizen Registry.

The news of the suspension came as the country was waiting for 64-year-old Arévalo to take over the office in January.

In July, a court had agreed to Attorney General María Consuelo Porras' office's request to suspend Movimiento Semilla. However, a higher court rejected the order, saying the party cannot be suspended when it was fighting an election.

Arévalo had finished second place in the first round of voting then, following which, in August, he won the final rounds by an overwhelming margin.

As the election cycle ended officially on Oct. 31, the Citizen Registry said it executed the decision Thursday, with the latter's spokesperson, Luis Gerardo Ramírez, saying the party was not eligible to hold assemblies or do administrative tasks.

Responding to the suspension, Samuel Perez, the leader of the party's lawmakers in the congress, said "The suspension is unprecedented, no criminal judge could suspend a party because it's illegal," AP News reported. "The problem is that the judge's suspension isn't legal, it's political."

The party can now appeal the court's decision to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

Eric Jacobstein, who served as the U.S. State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told the journalists during his visit to Guatemala Thursday that the party's suspension order was worrisome.

"We reject the continuous efforts that seek to undermine the peaceful transition of power to the elected president," Jacobstein said, WorldNationNews reported. "Our goal is to strengthen our relations between the United States and Guatemala, that's why we support the transition."

Guatemalans have accused attorney general Porras of making efforts to disqualify Arevalo's party and stop him from taking over the office. Several Guatemalans had taken to the streets to demand the resignation of prosecutors accused of blocking Arevalo.

Most of the protests, which began Oct. 7, have been peaceful. However, a couple of incidents saw the protesters block the roads and disrupt Guatemalan's daily routine. At that time, Porras urged the government to remove the pro-democracy protesters forcefully.

In addition, gunshots were fired on Oct. 15 during the ongoing pro-democracy protest, which led to the death of one person and caused injuries among two, local authorities disclosed. One day after this incident, Guatemala's Interior Minister Napoleón Barrientos stepped down from his position.

Last month, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian A. Nichols, visited Guatemala and encouraged peaceful democratic transition in the country.