January in mid -April, the Plenary of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) remained without sessions. The dispute between the acting president and the alternate magistrates prevented work meetings, which were finally resumed on April 11.
Finally, the Magistrate Blanca Alfaro and the five alternate magistrates reached an agreement to reactivate the Plenary sessions, which gives the electoral body free to know pending resources.
Some of them are appeals that have prevented the cancellation of political parties that did not reach five percent of votes in the presidential election and that also did not place deputies in Congress, which means an imminent cancellation for the parameters established by the electoral law and political parties (LEPP), amended in 2016.
Although the magistrates have already resumed their work functions and in the first plenary session administrative issues were addressed, it is necessary to establish a deep agenda to plan the electoral event of 2027.
At least that thinks expert analysts in electoral matters that consider vital that the current Magistracy of the TSE, which will end in less than a year, leave as inheritance a complete planning that serves the next electoral magistracy.
The following TSE authorities assume in March 2026, just nine months after the authorities call for the following general elections.
Although the TSE has already held some meetings on the issue with political parties, these have not been developed under the representation of the Plenary of Magistrates of the TSE.
Prioritize agenda
When the TSE was without celebrating full sessions, the different organizations that make up Guatemala forum warned of the risks of not preparing how the following elections are due, but now that the TSE limited roughness, they are necessary to schedule a work agenda.
“The incoming TSE will have only a few months to work on the electoral process of 2027, so they must deliver an easy implementation strategy, which does not leave anything pending,” said Raquel Zelaya, of the Association in Research and Social Studies (so on).
Zelaya added that it is positive that the magistrates are finally willing to work. “We would expect an intense work agenda because they have to work logistic, technical and administrative aspects,” he said.
For its part, Christist Walters, of the National Civic Movement (MCN), agrees that priority is needed to the preparation of the elections, but also considers to begin to encourage the participation of future voters.
“An important part will be the registration for young people and review the regulations of the TSE that need review, because the reforms to the electoral law were left behind,” he said.
Regulation and technology
The Electoral Update and Modernization Commission (CAME) worked last year in a proposal to reform the electoral law, which was presented by the TSE to Congress.
The legislative agency gathered all the proposals and issued an opinion, which for the consideration of experts was away from the agreed proposal between the TSE, political parties and civil society.
Now the document has not walked within the Congress, so experts consider it necessary for the TSE to analyze its regulations, since in the absence of an electoral reform, it is the alternative that the electoral body has.
“That they evaluate their regulations to avoid some of the complications of the 2023 process. For example, problems in the registration and financing phase; that evaluate everything that gave them problems in 2023,” said Guillermo Fuentes, of the Air Organization.
He also said that it is necessary to evaluate the way in which political parties are authorized, because it was something that gave problems in 2023.
“The first thing they should pay attention to is in the formation of new political parties; in this they must pay attention so that each one, if it becomes a political party, does not have problems or in the midst of the electoral process,” he added.
Another factor to take into account is the computer system and the way in which the vote is encouraged abroad, according to Pedro Cruz, a member of First Guatemala.
“A priority is to begin to evaluate what the mechanisms of control and monitoring of the vote will be, especially telling that the TREP was disused; and the second is the call to registration, especially outside the country, because the vote abroad represents a high cost,” Cruz said.
In 2023, the Public Ministry (MP) opened an investigation around the electoral results. They considered apparent irregularities in the way in which the votes projected in the TREP system were counted.
Even the purchase of the computer system brought criminal problems to the four remaining titular magistrates, which prevents them from occupying their positions for restrictions imposed by a criminal court.