The decision by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal came days after the electoral registry suspended the party on a judge’s order. The Attorney General’s office is investigating whether there was wrongdoing in the gathering of required signatures for the party’s formation years earlier.
The tribunal said the suspension could not stand because it did not come from an electoral body. Its decision holds until the official end of the electoral period Oct. 31, because Guatemala’s electoral law does not allow the suspension of a party during the electoral period.
The Seed Movement had also appealed the suspension through the normal court system, but so far without result. It is expected that come Nov. 1, .
Observers inside and outside Guatemala have warned in recent years that the country's democracy is in decline.
President Jimmy Morales, Giammattei's predecessor, expelled the United Nations-backed anti-corruption mission that had made impressive strides in dismantling networks of corruption that divert public monies to their pockets and had allowed drug traffickers to take ever-growing control of the country.
Giammattei weaponized the justice system, turning it against the same prosecutors and judges who had led that anti-corruption fight. His Attorney General and her anti-corruption prosecutor have both been sanctioned by the United States government as undemocratic actors allegedly involved in corruption.
His support expanded exponentially as he headed into the runoff last month. He ran a hopeful outsider's campaign against Torres, who was making her third presidential bid and couldn't shake the status quo reputation she picked up by helping to advance Giammattei's legislative agenda.
