Conservative Alejandro Giammattei was elected as Guatemala’s president on Sunday, defeating former first lady Sandra Torres in a run-off, the central American country’s electoral court said.
With the results being updated in real time on the court’s website, the institution’s president Julio Solorzano declared the result “already irreversible.”
Giammattei will succeed corruption-tainted outgoing President Jimmy Morales, who leaves office in January.
“The aim is fulfilled,” Giammattei had said earlier.
He had polled almost 58.5 percent with a lead of 550,000 votes and only a few thousand left to count when the court declared him the victor.
Giammattei will be under immense pressure from the United States to implement a controversial migration pact that would allow Washington to send most Honduran and Salvadoran asylum seekers who passed through Guatemala back to the poor, crime-stricken country.
The two candidates had both avoided committing to strong positions on the US deal.
Corruption was the main issue leading up to the first round of elections in June — which Torres topped — but that has been superseded by the political scandal over the migration deal.
