Guatemala President-elect decries  'coup' as ballots seized in raid

President-elect Bernardo Arevalo has called for the resignation of Guatemala's attorney general after ballots were seized by prosecutors in another controversial raid.

"The coup plotters must resign," Arevalo said, naming three officials at the centre of legal efforts that have targeted his Semilla (Seed) party: Attorney General Consuelo Porras, special prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, and judge Fredy Orellana.

"They have deviated from their constitutional function of investigating and prosecuting, fully towards a clear coup d'etat in progress," Arevalo told a press conference on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors raided a facility storing ballots from the June 25 election, in which Arevalo, a 64-year-old social democrat, pulled off a massive upset to advance to a runoff.

Before Arevalo's eventual second-round win on August 20, Currichiche's office sought to suspend the Semilla party, provoking international consternation over attempted election interference.

Currichiche told reporters that the latest raid had nothing to do with any investigation into Semilla but rather a "citizen complaint" of alleged irregularities.

Irma Palencia, president of the election body which possessed the ballots, said their seizure was an "unprecedented and worrying" move.

"Now we cannot guarantee the contents of the boxes," she said during a news conference, though she insisted the vote -- and Arevalo's election -- could not be reversed at this stage.

Arevalo, who is set to take office in January, also announced Tuesday that he would temporarily suspend his participation in the transition process with outgoing right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei until the "necessary institutional political conditions are reestablished".

The outgoing and incoming leaders have held two transition meetings, both attended by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.

Tuesday's raid generated a fresh wave of criticism from international observers.

Brian Nicholas, the top US diplomat for Latin America, denounced the raid as an "unprecedented action (that) undermines the democratic transition and the will of the Guatemalan people."

"These actions constitute further proof that the Public Prosecutor's Office, far from adjusting its actions to democratic standar ds, has been intensifying a strategy of questioning the electoral process and intimidating electoral authorities," the Organization of American States Electoral Observation Mission said in a statement.