At stake in this election:

• 158 seats in the Congress of the Republic (Congreso de la Republica)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Alvaro COLOM Caballeros
• Head of Government: President Alvaro COLOM Caballeros
• Assembly: Guatemala has a unicameral Congress of the Republic (Congreso de la Republica) with 158 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 4-year term.
• In the Congress of the Republic (Congreso de la Republica) 158 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** Of the 158 members, 127 are departmental-level representatives selected through 22 departmental lists; 31 are national-level representatives selected in one, nationwide district. Votes are tabulated using the D'Hondt method.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: National Unity for Hope (UNE) / Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza
  • Leader: Joaquin FLORES Jairp
  • Seats won in last election: 51
• Party: Patriot Party (PP) / Partido Patriota
  • Leader: Otto PEREZ Molina
  • Seats won in last election: 31
• Party: Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity / Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG)
  • Leader: Hector NUILA
  • Seats won in last election: 2
• Party: Encounter for Guatemala / Encuentro por Guatemala (EG)
  • Leader: Nineth MONTENEGRO
  • Seats won in last election: 4
• Party: National Advance Party / El Partido de Avanzada Naciona (PAN)
  • Leader: Juan Guillermo GUTIERREZ Strauss
  • Seats won in last election: 3
• Party: National Union of Change / Unión del Cambio Nacional (UCN)
  • Leader: Mario ESTRADA
  • Seats won in last election: 5
• Alliance: Unionist Party / Original Spanish text: Partido Unionista (PU)
  • Leader: Patricia ARZU
  • Seats won in last election: 7
• Party: Renewed Democratic Liberty Party / Libertad Democrática Renovada (Lider)
  • Leader: Manuel BALDIZON
  • Seats won in last election: N/A

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 15,049,280 (2011)
• Registered Voters: 7,340,841 (September 2011)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 7,695,559 (2011)

·         Is Guatemala a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (8 June 1981)

·         Has Guatemala ratified CEDAW: Yes (12 August 1982)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 21 (following the 2011 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 128 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Medium (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Guatemala a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has Guatemala ratified CRPD: Yes (7 April 2009)

·         Population with a disability: 2,257,392 (est.)