Friday

(CNN) -- Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and his wife, Sandra Torres de Colom, have filed for divorce in an attempt to clear the way for the first lady to run for the presidency, Guatemalan Judge Mildred Roca told CNN.

Torres jumped in the race for president on March 9, but she has been dogged by critics who called her candidacy illegitimate because of a constitutional article that bars relatives of the president from seeking the high office.

The couple filed for divorce on March 11, the family court judge said. The divorce petition was a "mutual agreement," so judicial hearings will not be necessary, Roca said.

Under Guatemalan law, within eight days of the divorce petition being filed, both parties must meet with a conciliatory commission to examine if the marriage can be saved. If not, then the divorce can be finalized in another eight days.

Roca declined to say whether Colom and Torres met with such a commission.

In an interview with CNN en Espanol the day before she filed for divorce, Torres declined to say whether divorce was an option to see her candidacy go forward.

She did say, however, that she and her husband had an "excellent relationship," and that she was very happy.

Torres claimed that under Guatemala's civil code, marriage does not constitute a relation that is banned under the constitution, and she said that her candidacy was legitimate even without divorce.

"I have the legitimate right to participate, the political right, the human right, to be a presidential candidate," she said.

Critics are calling the divorce a fraud to circumvent the anti-nepotism article in the constitution, but Roca said that because the divorce is mutually agreed upon, no reason or cause need be given.

"Their intentions are a personal matter," the judge said.

If mutual, the only requirement to is have been married for longer than one year. Torres and Colom have been married for eight.

Torres and Colom belong to the National Unity of Hope, or UNE, party. In a statement, the party confirmed the pending divorce, stating that the goal was "to avoid further political manipulations from the opposition."

its a shame that they divorce and what people can do only for power they are president and know we see that they dont have moral, the family is tha base of the society and they are destroying it so I dont think that she would be a good president if even she isnt president and she dont have "conciencia" I dont know what she would do in the power.