HBO's John Oliver on Guatemala's elections

John Oliver recently took a look at the clown running for president of Guatemala. It looks like Jimmy Morales is going to confront former first lady Sandra Torres in a second round six weeks or so from today. Manuel Baldizon was slightly behind in the counting of votes and has instead decided to withdraw from the race amidst claims of fraud. At the same time, he quit his party Lider.

Baldizon told Radio Sonora that he could not endorse the electoral process and said the results "lacked legitimacy." He said he wouldn't throw his support behind either of the other two.

"I can't endorse anyone who would participate in a process marred by irregularities and corruption," he said, but without giving specifics.

As I speculated last week, there were enough shenanigans between UNE and Lider that we will never really know which party truly finished second in voters' preferences. However, from the looks of it, Baldizon and Lider can't complain. They've been campaigning for the last six years and royally messed up by throwing their lot in with the PP and Otto Perez these last few years, including during the protests of the last six months. In many ways, they didn't lose the election on September 6th. They lost it when they decided to protect Perez.

Guatemala: questions about whether arrest and criminal charges imminent after Mauricio Baldizon quits presidential race & politcal party

— Nina Lakhani (@ninalakhani) September 15, 2015

Nina Lakhani (seriously, you should follow @ninalakhani reporting on the region) speculates that something else might be behind Baldizon's abrupt decision to drop out of the race. That's quite possible.

We've thought all along that he might be one of the MP office and CICIG's next targets. His vice presidential candidate has already been implicated in a money laundering scheme and you can't read anything about the man without reading about his connections to corrupt political practices in Peten.

We'll have to wait and see if there are legal charges pending. If justice moves as quickly as it has these last few months, the wait might not be long.