The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has Q500 million to plan the 2027 general elections, according to legislative decree 16-2026 that was published last Tuesday in the official gazette and is now in force.
The decree allows the TSE the necessary budget expansion to make the acquisitions it considers for the next electoral event, in which citizens will have to define their future authorities.
But in the approval of the budget expansion, the deputies authorized exceptional purchases, which bypass the procedures regulated by the State Procurement Law to make the strategy more agile.
In the past, this type of purchase began to undermine the credibility of the TSE, due to inspection reports that exposed doubts in the execution of resources in the years 2022 and 2023.
The organizations that integrated Mirador Electoral in the 2023 elections indicated that a good part of the electoral planning resources were executed without being loaded into the Guatecompras inspection system.
During the approval of decree 16-2026, the deputies also placed a control measure, where the TSE is obliged to submit a periodic report on the way in which it has been executing the budget expansion.
This detail of the expenses incurred will have to be presented to the Congressional Electoral Affairs Commission. You have the first 15 days of each month to report expenses made the previous month.
The announcement of this expansion occurred at the last TSE meeting with representatives of political parties, which was held in a hotel in the capital’s zone 10.
The next meeting that the electoral plenary session will hold with the representatives of the political parties will be on Thursday, June 25, but the location of the session has now been moved to a hotel on the road to El Salvador.
The priorities
For electoral analysts and observers, it is positive that the TSE has the necessary resources to plan the electoral event, but they consider it vital that they do not make the same mistakes as their predecessors and are transparent.
Manfredo Marroquin, director of Acción Ciudadana, an entity led by Mirador Electoral, believes that it is necessary for the TSE to make a real plan for the elections, so that it knows exactly what to do.
“The problem that we have seen in other magistracies is that there is never a definitive plan, it is improvised and purchases are made without Guatecompras, something that is illegal,” Marroquín explained.
The expert added that, despite having exceptional purchases, this portal should always be used to charge each of the expenses. “Although they were exempt from the requirements, they did have to publish in Guatecompras,” he insisted.
For his part, Pedro Cruz, from Primero Guatemala, considers that the priorities must be focused on the electoral operation, on oversight controls and investing in technology that provides credibility.
“The budget expansion should be understood as an investment that helps give credibility to the democratic process, it should not be seen as an administrative expansion,” Cruz stressed.
For Guillermo Fuentes, from the civic training organization Aire, the TSE should not spend “millions of dollars” on a new computer system, and he considered that now the priority should be investment to encourage participation.
“Be strengthened with a possible expansion for polling stations, solidity in the different electoral boards, promote civility and create a support structure for citizens that will support in other elections,” he said.
Outdated website
Observers highlighted as a problem that the TSE website is not usually updated frequently, which can work against transparency and reduce trust.
Until 4:09 p.m. this Wednesday, June 17, the data on political parties and pro-formation committees was updated until June 5.
When talking about the agreements, they asked when they were going to update the website. The Social Communication Department of the TSE indicated that it would carry out the consultation, but so far there are no updates.
“The TSE must be very respectful of the Law on Access to Public Information, so that all information that is required is delivered, but better yet, it is available on the TSE website,” said Marroquín.
For his part, Cruz highlighted that although it may seem simple, keeping its website updated can be essential if the institution wants to improve its credibility.
“When this information is not available, it generates doubts and speculation. The TSE does not have to be using requests for information or leaks, this should be something constant and verifiable,” he indicated.
Fuentes even considered that it should be better explained if there are new restrictions or data considered sensitive, since, he indicates, certain data related to political parties is no longer shared.
“They no longer provide information about the members of the different boards and bodies of the political parties, it is something that is worrying and we hope they change,” he indicated.
Background of 2023
Mirador Electoral detected how in the last electoral event, the TSE, far from spending on planning issues, allocated Q12 million 880 thousand on operational issues, including fuel expenses.
But not all purchases were detailed in Guatecompras, which caused the observation and inspection group to consider the practice of the old electoral elections as a “parallel system”, by detailing some purchases on its website.
Only in publications located on the TSE website, as of April 2024, expenses of Q254 million were located, while the purchase documents were not uploaded to the Guatecompras system.
The response of the electoral authorities was based on the fact that Congress had authorized purchases by exception, in addition to the issuance of two agreements in which it was established to publish calls in the official newspaper, one with the greatest circulation, and on the TSE website.