Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina has resigned days before the elections, after the attorney general obtained a warrant for his arrest amid a corruption scandal.

Mr Perez Molina’s resignation comes just days before Sunday’s presidential election, in which he was barred from standing under constitutional rules.

On Tuesday, Congress stripped him of his immunity from prosecution, and on Wednesday the attorney general, Thelma Aldana, requested an arrest warrant for Pérez Molina.

Aldana later said a judge had issued the warrant on suspicion of illicit association, fraud and receiving bribe money, relating to a widespread customs fraud ring.

The corruption scandal, uncovered by prosecutors and a UN commission investigating criminal networks in Guatemala, involves a scheme known as “la linea”, or the line, in which businesspeople paid bribes to avoid import duties through the customs agency.

Protesters, business leaders and Catholic church officials had called for Pérez Molina to resign in recent weeks as the investigation of the customs fraud ring grew wider and hit more officials. Pérez Molina was steadfast in his plan to stay, until the judge’s order. He has maintained his innocence.