Description of Electoral System

Political Organization: Constitutional and democratic republic consisting of twenty departments.

Form of Government: Presidential.

• National Executive Power: resides with the President of the Republic, whom is both the Chief of State and Head of Government. The President is elected jointly with the Vice President by popular vote for a four-year term and may not serve consecutive terms.
• National Legislative Power: Unicameral legislative power is placed with the Congress of Guatemala, which is comprised by a varying number of representatives (currently there are 158) which serve four-year terms and are eligible for re-election.

Electoral System

The President of the Republic: is elected jointly with the Vice President on the same ballot by popular vote. If neither candidate obtains 50% plus 1 of the votes a runoff election is held between the two candidates that obtained the most votes.

The Congress of the Republic: the Representatives of the Guatemalan Congress are elected trough a proportional representation system occurring at the national and departmental level. At the national level a quarter of the total seats are selected and each department, as well as the capital of the country, forms a district in which one Representative is elected for over 80,000 inhabitants.

Elections in Guatemala are held on the same date for the president and a unicameral legislature.

Get in touch with the Centre through our e-mail or phone us at: +52 (55) 5449-0444