GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -Guatemalan prosecutors raided the electoral court’s citizen registration office on Thursday as part of an investigation into anti-graft party Semilla, whose candidate is running for the presidency, the prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
The raid on the office, which records political parties’ inscriptions, comes a day after a court suspended Semilla ahead of a presidential run-off on Aug. 20 between its candidate Bernardo Arevalo and former First Lady Sandra Torres.
Prosecutors said the raid follows indications that more than 5,000 Semilla members had been affiliated with the party illegally, including 12 deceased people.
Arevalo said on Wednesday he would challenge his party’s suspension, which he claimed violates Guatemalan law as a political party cannot be suspended in the middle of an election.
Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, whose anti-impunity office requested the Semilla suspension, has previously targeted anti-graft campaigners and been placed on the U.S. State Department’s “Engel List” for “corrupt and undemocratic actors.”
On Wednesday night, after the suspension, a senior U.S. official warned of a threat to democracy.
“We are deeply concerned by threats to Guatemala’s electoral democracy. Institutions must respect the will of voters,” Brian A. Nichols, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said in a post on Twitter.
(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Sarah Morland and Stephen Eisenhammer)