By Sofia Menchu
GUATEMALA CITY, April 23 (Reuters) – Guatemala’s Constitutional Court on Thursday froze the process to select the country’s next attorney general and ordered the nominating commission and president to revise the list of finalists.
The ruling effectively jeopardizes the list of six finalists selected earlier this week by a commission of jurists, in which current Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been sanctioned by foreign governments, did not make the cut.
In its ruling, the court instructed the commission to “review again the scores given to all applicants who had held the position of judge and assign the corresponding score to each one,” forcing a reassessment of the candidates.
The court said that time served as a judge does not count toward the required years of legal practice for the post, which could affect the eligibility and ranking of several contenders.
The shortlist drew attention earlier this week after the commission left Porras off.
Porras is a leading adversary of President Bernardo Arevalo and has been sanctioned by the U.S., Canada, the European Union and others for alleged corruption, persecution of human rights advocates and efforts to undermine Arevalo’s 2023 election.
The court gave Arevalo a four-hour deadline to return the shortlist of candidates for attorney general if he has already received it, and gave the nominating commission 48 hours to revise the evaluations before proceeding with the process and sending the shortlist back to the president.
(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon)
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