Requirements to vote in Guatemala: All the information you need

Guatemala is one of the countries whose right to vote is a civic duty, but not mandatory, review the Requirements to vote in Guatemala: All the information you need and be encouraged to be part of the choice of the authorities that will administer the goods and resources of your nation.

Requirements to vote in Guatemala

Guatemalan citizens, in order to comply with the right and duty to vote for their government authorities, must meet the following requirements and conditions:

1. Be over 18 years of age
2. Be registered in the electoral roll of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala, TSE.
3. Carry the DPI or Personal Identification Document, current.

It is recommended that before the date of the elections, the place and table where to vote be confirmed.

Who cannot vote

Just as there are conditions that enable the right to vote, there are also those that disable or prohibit it, namely:

1. Active members of the security forces such as the National Army and the Police. Those who hold any position in these areas for reasons of special commissions or activities of a military nature are included.
2. People whose citizenship rights are suspended to exercise them. Or those who, due to justifications according to the law, have lost their citizenship.

In order for the TSE to comply with the exclusion of those who are in the previous provisions from the electoral roll, each authority must send the respective list to the Citizens Registry.

Must do so with a time in advance before closing the registration for the next call for elections.

Among the justifications or reasons for suspending citizens’ rights, according to the law:

1. Having been convicted in a criminal proceeding with a final judgment.
2. When there is a judicial declaration for incapacity of civil acts or for interdiction.

These rights will be recovered when:

1. The time of sentence according to the sentence imposed is fulfilled.
2. He benefited from pardon or amnesty. By the corresponding authority.
3. In cases of interdiction, the judicial justification for rehabilitation.

Political organizations

Based on the Electoral and Political Parties Law, in its article 16, political organizations are understood to be:

1. All those political parties and the formation of their committees responsible for their creation.
2. The civic electoral boards or delegations
3. Commissions for political purposes.

These political groups enjoy full freedom to organize, as long as their operation complies with the conditions established in said law.

This condition of freedom also welcomes citizens, who can be part of political organizations of their own free will and based on compliance with their statutes.

Political parties in Guatemala

We also have that the aforementioned Electoral Law, in its article 18, provides that political party groups must comply with its legal constitution and be registered in the Citizen Registry.

Once these steps are achieved, They can be declared as institutions of public law, they have legal personality, with an unlimited duration. However, there may be situations established in the electoral law that could modify the democratic character of the political regime.

For the existence and operation of political parties, it is required to meet the following requirements:

1. Have a number of members, in full freedom of their political rights and registered in the Citizen Registry. The number must be equivalent to 0.30 of the total of the last electoral roll and 50% of them must be legalized.
2. Its constitution must be by public deed.
3. Have complete all the requirements for the correct registration of the members who lead the permanent bodies, keeping them legally constituted and in operation.
4. Ensure the proper updating of their registration in the Citizen Registry.

It should be noted that being a member of more than one political party is prohibited, taking into account that the separation of these is voluntary, and may be expressly or tacitly.

For the first one must present the resignation before the Citizen Registry or the same political party.

The second form occurs when You proceed to register with another political party and it is the Citizen Registry that makes the change through official letter.

Rights and obligations of political parties

According to article 19 of the aforementioned Electoral Law, political parties enjoy rights and fulfillment of obligations, these being:

Rights

1. The nomination of candidates to be popularly elected to hold public office.
2. Carry out the inspection through the assigned prosecutors, in accordance with the law, of all matters related to the electoral process.
3. The appointment of their own prosecutors at the national level. Complying with their accreditation before the TSE and generating the right to be present at the sessions of the electoral body. Additionally, they must inspect the electoral and vote reception commissions with a national scope during the electoral process. This designation must be made within eight days following the date of the calling of an election.
4. Upon learning of any abnormality, the respective complaints must be filed with the TSE or Electoral Inspector. Carry out its follow-up to demand the due investigation of the violation of the regulations and the principles and values ​​of the electoral laws and its political actors.

5. To use the postal services provided by the state with privileges, after identifying the party members responsible for the use of this franchise. They can make use of this right from the day after the official call to the electoral elections and up to thirty days after the end of the electoral event. It is national in scope to support its oversight of the entire electoral process. In the event that the state does not directly provide the postal service, it must reimburse the financial resources that the political parties have used for that purpose.

6. Use without cost of the premises of the municipality, as well as other municipal rooms or facilities that have the conditions for holding assemblies or meetings on a quarterly basis.
7. Place your electoral propaganda through the use of posts located on public roads, as well as other common use goods, as long as they are not incompatible with the purpose of elections.

Obligations

1. Keep updated with the Citizen Registry, the certified copies of the minutes of the assemblies held. Complying with the maximum period of fifteen days, counted from the date of the event.
2. Update any modification of its statutes, constitution and its permanent bodies before the Citizen Registry. Within a limited period of fifteen days maximum after the modification occurred.

3. Have a record of the affiliation of its members in the specific forms for this purpose, created by the same party and approved by the Citizen Registry, to whom they must deliver a copy of them for analysis. The affiliation sheets that the registry has cleared will be those that give official status to the affiliates of the political parties.

4. Carry out, in accordance with the law, activities associated with ideological formation, proselytism, fundraising and participation in electoral processes.
5. Be motivators for citizens to participate in national politics. Suggesting the candidacy for positions of popular election to the feminine sector of its partisan members.
6. Stimulate the knowledge, education and democratic civic training of its members.
7. In case of being sued for review by the TSE or its bodies, they must deliver their books and documents to confirm their legal operations.
8. Promote the analysis and revision of national problems;
9. Cooperate with the inspection of electoral processes in conjunction with the respective authorities;

10. Do not accept financial aid, nor special treatment from the State or associated institutions, which are not specifically approved by law.

11. Once they are officially registered as Political Parties, they must demand from the Citizen Registry, the authorization of their minute books from the bodies that comprise it, by the Department of Political Organizations.
12. Upon learning of any abnormality, the respective complaints must be filed with the TSE or Electoral Inspector. Carry out its follow-up to demand the due investigation of the violation of the regulations and the principles and values ​​of the electoral laws and its political actors.
13. Stay attached to the laws in force for the transparent exercise of their functions.

Good luck in your next electoral participation!