Anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo wins Guatemala presidential election

Bernardo Arévalo, a sociologist who unexpectedly won a slot in Guatemala's presidential runoff election on an anticorruption platform, was elected president Sunday in a landslide over former first lady Sandra Torres. With more than 98% of the ballots counted, Arévalo had 58 percent to Torres' 36%. President Alejandro Giammattei, who was barred from seeking re-election, congratulated Arévalo and invited him to begin and orderly transition of power after the vote is certified.

Arévalo, 64, is the son of former President Juan José Arévalo, the country's first democratically elected leader, who is revered for creating Guatemala's social security system and taking other steps to benefit the poor after he took office in 1945. His successor, Jacobo Árbenz, was ousted in a U.S.-backed right-wing military coup in 1954. Bernardo Arévalo was born in exile in Uruguay.

"A moderate who criticizes leftist governments like that of Nicaragua," Arévalo "is nevertheless viewed in Guatemala's conservative political landscape as the most progressive candidate to get this far since democracy was restored in the country in 1985 after more than three decades of military rule," The New York Times reported.

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Arévalo's apparent victory "is almost certainly distressing politicians who have been enjoying impunity for corruption, along with some members of the monied elite and their allies in organized crime," The Associated Press added. There is some concern that judicial shenanigans will attempt to prevent Arévalo from taking office on Jan. 14.

Top prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who is listed on a U.S. register of corrupt officials, threatened to dissolve Arévalo's newly formed Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement) before the election and said he may still bar from office or arrest members of the party. Attorney General Consuelo Porras is also on the U.S. corrupt-officials list. Several candidates viewed as a threat by Guatemala's ruling elite were disqualified before the June election, and Arévalo's second-place showing in that first round appeared to take everyone by surprise .

Torres was first lady from 2008 to 2012, but she divorced her husband, Álvaro Colom, in 2011 so she could run for president herself. This was her third time coming in second place.