JUNE 22, 2023
COMMENTARY
Reviewing the strategies of populists with authoritarian tendencies, political philosopher Jan-Werner Müller recently pointed out that “one lesson is [to] capture the judiciary first — after that, media pluralism and elections can be undermined at will.”
This is precisely what has been happening in Guatemala, which will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on June 25. But in the runup to the vote, the electoral justice system has disqualified numerous presidential candidates—including the one leading in the polls—largely on spurious grounds. Countless critics have left the country. Only 16 percent of Guatemalans trust the electoral tribunal in charge of running elections. The vote will thus not be fair, raising the question of whether political observers should refrain from using the term “election” at all. As a result, the world’s focus should be less attuned to the political contest itself and more on the event…
Read full article here
