Conservative candidate Carlos Pineda sings the national anthem on May 20 after leaving the Constitutional Court in Guatemala City. A Conservative businessman, Pineda lost his final appeal to continue his campaign, one month before voting starts.
The Constitutional Court of Guatemala has ruled to end the presidential campaign of dark horse candidate Carlos Pineda, with only one month remaining before voting begins.
Pineda, a conservative businessman with a strong social media following, had appealed to the country’s highest court after a judge suspended his candidacy a week ago, citing noncompliance with the country’s election laws.
But the Constitutional Court on Friday upheld the lower court’s ruling, which found that Pineda failed to collect signatures from party delegates and file required financial reports, as required in the nomination process.
That decision provoked a fiery response from Pineda, who had recently emerged as the frontrunner in one election poll.
“Corruption won, Guatemala lost,” Pineda wrote in one social media post.
In another, he said the Constitutional Court had endorsed “electoral fraud” with its ruling: “We are left without democracy!!”
Pineda is the third candidate so far to be disqualified from the presidential race, with the first round of voting scheduled for June 25. His disqualification follows that of fellow conservative Roberto Arzú on Thursday.
Earlier this year, a left-leaning Indigenous candidate, Thelma Cabrera, was likewise barred from the race after her running mate, former human rights official Jordán Rodas, was deemed ineligible.
Rodas had allegedly failed to produce a letter confirming he had no legal proceedings pending against him, leading a court to rule that his whole ticket — including Cabrera — could not register for the elections.