Honduras Solidarity Network

Honduras
Presidential
and Legislative Elections November 24, 2013
What is underway in these elections
Honduran Crises; Political Violence,
and
Human
Rights
Violations
in
Post-Coup Honduras
Honduras has been confronted in recent years with a seemingly never-ending
series of socio-economic, political and environmental crises. On May 28, 2009, a
powerful earthquake hit the north coast of the country,
On June 28, military personnel arrested President Manuel Zelaya and forced him
into exile. Congress temporarily installed Roberto Micheletti as de facto president.
Porfirio Lobo, who was later elected president in the 2009 elections, replaced
Micheletti. The first year of Lobo’s presidency has been characterized by
repression and deteriorating human rights conditions.
Honduras can be traced back to a legacy of political violence, unresolved issues
of poverty and inequality, mismanaged natural disasters, and an unsustainable
disregard for the rule of law.
The elections of November 2009 took place in
a climate of repression and press censorship
and nearly every country in the hemisphere,
with the exception of the U.S., refused to
recognize the results. The alleged winner of
that dubious election was Porfirio Lobo.
Number of Seats up for Vote
The president will be elected for a single four-year term.
•
Presidents are elected by a majority; there is no runoff election and three presidential
appointees
•
In addition, 128 members of the unicameral Congress will be elected through a
proportional system for four-year terms. and their alternates.
•
Voters will also elect mayors and vice-mayors to the country’s 298 municipalities.
•
20 members of the Central American Parliament
Who Votes
In Honduras, voting is mandatory.
•
According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the authorities of the
National Registry of Persons (RNP). The voter registration for the 2013
general elections would be 5.3 million eligible citizens to cast their votes.
•
The new National Electoral Census included as new voters to 896,341
thousand new voters, which in percentage terms represents a growth of
49% over the previous standard that was used in the four years from 2009.
•
The total of women voters are, 2 million 724 000 thousand, this represents
50.87% of the electorate.
•
The total male voters are 2 million 631 000 108 thousand, this represent
49.13% of the electorate.
38,000 to 68,000 Hondurans are disabled people who include high in
the Armed Forces, the Police and those serving sentences in prisons in
the country.
Expatriates
can
vote
for
president
from
abroad;
over 46,000 Hondurans living in the United States are eligible to cast their
ballots. This voter group accounts for less than 1 percent of all eligible
Honduran
The
rural areavoters.
is still the land of the country
with the highest population density, for
3,056,129 live within the nation and
represent 57.00% of the population eligible to
vote.
While in urban areas are identified to two
million 298 000 983 eligible citizens to cast
their votes which represent 43.00% of the
electorate.
Political Parties
●
Partido Libertad y Refundación, (LIBRE)
●
Partido Anti Corrupción (PAC)
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Alianza Patriótica Hondureña (APH)
●
Frente Amplio Político en Resistencia (FAPER)
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Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH)
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Partido Nacional de Honduras (PNH)
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Unificación Democrática UD
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Partido Innovación y Unidad-Social Democrática PINU
●
Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Honduras (DC)
From these nine political parties four are new
this will be the first time to participate
Partido Libertad y Refundación, (LIBRE). Political arm of the
National Popular Front of Resistance (FNRP) Honduran resistance
against the coup of June 28, 2009
Partido Anti Corrupción (PAC). From the Narrator of Football and
TV host, Salvador Nasralla.
Alianza Patriótica Hondureña (APH). The Material perpetuator of
Military Coup
that broke the constitutionality and brought death and repression
to Honduras, General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez
Frente Amplio Político en Resistencia (FAPER). Founded by Andres
Pavon, director of the Committee for the Defense of Human
Rights in Honduras, (CODEH)
Key Candidates
The two main contenders for president are
•
Xiomara Castro de Zelaya the wife of deposed former President Manuel
Zelaya and former first lady of Honduras, Castro de Zalaya is is running on
the Freedom and Reestablishment Party (Partido Libertad y Refundación
LIBRE). Castro has beenleading the polls. As her husband did in his
presidency, she aims to hold a constituent assembly to change the
Constitution—a desire which spurred the constitutional crisis that led to
Zelaya’s ouster in 2009. She also supports demilitarizing the country.
•
And Juan Orlando Hernández of the National Party, currently serves as
president of the Honduran Congress. He favors creating a new military
police force and privatizations. •
statistically tied. statistics say there is a tie between two candidates
Results
The Elections in 2009, That for the first time had a historical lack of international
observers, according to TSE the results from the population eligible to vote.
4,611,211
Of which 2,300,056 voted only is 50.1% of actual turnout.
The 2012 primary election the population eligible to vote 5109163 and 2458558 a
percentage similar to the previous.
The census for the November 24, 2013 elections is 5355112 that includes more than
a million and a half of compatriots living abroad.
Primaries in 2012 was 124.650 167.530 null and blank votes are 292.180
considerable added much greater than the valid votes that three parties together
PINU, DC and UD presidential level have been obtained in the last election, whose
number reached 110.793.
Election Issues
16,000 polling stations and 280,000 members and
alternate representatives of these tables.
Election Issues
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President Lobo, when he came into office in January 2010, appointed the same
actors who perpetrated the coup to top positions in the military and government,
where they largely remain. None of the perpetrators of the coup have gone to jail
and the Lobo government passed an amnesty law that prevents those who
participated in the coup from being prosecuted.
Since the coup, the basic rule of law, never stable in Honduras, has deteriorated
dramatically and human rights violations have soared. For over a year now the
country has boasted the highest murder rate in the world.
The judicial system is largely nonfunctional. The government admits that all but
2% of cases remain in impunity, including widespread killings of journalists, LGBT
people, lawyers, and members of the opposition. State security forces are reported
to be frequently involved in killings and other egregious human rights abuses. The
Associated Press in two stories in early 2013 documented multiple "social
cleansing" death squad killings by the Honduran police.
The current National Chief of Police, Juan Carlos "El Tigre" Bonilla, was reported in
a 2003 investigation by the Honduran police to be a death squad leader during
1998-2002. The investigation of his activities was shut down by the government at
the time. Despite widespread alarm and condemnation, he remains in charge of
all the Honduran police.
Election Issues
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Since 2010, the year aftrer the coup, US funding for the Honduran police and military has risen every
year. In 2011, the US Department of Defense authorized $24 million to make the US barracks at Soto
Cano Air Force in Honduras permanent for the first time since the US presence at the base in 1954.
Despite widespread alarm voiced by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International the U.S. authorized at
least $95 million in police and military funding for Honduras in 2012 (exact figures are not publicly
available).
In August, 2012, in response to human rights conditions placed on US aid to Honduran security forces
in the 2012 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, the State Department certified that these
conditions--regarding Honduran rule of law, media freedom, and prosecution of state security forces
that had committed human rights abuses--had been met, releasing the funds.
In response to rampant corruption in the police, the military are now increasingly taking over policing
functions. President Lobo, in violation of the Honduran constitution, has authorized military
participation in policing well into 2014. Three retired coronels from the military were just appointed to
top positions in the police, including the Vice Minister of Security, who himself has been linked to death
squad activity targeting the Left during the 1980s.
In his Spanish-language internet press conference, Assistant Secretary Brownfield stated that he
praised and "admired" Police Chief Bonilla. When Bonilla was first appointed in May 2012, US
Ambassador Kubiske tweeted that she "welcomed" Bonilla to the police cleanup. The State
Department, in August, 2012, acknowledged that the funds to Bonilla had been withheld, but only after
the Associated Press revealed that the funds had been withheld. State has never itself criticized Bonilla,
despite widespread reports in Honduras regarding his former and current death squad activities.
Election Issues
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Since the coup, 104 campesinos (small farmers) struggling to restore
land rights of small farmers in the Aguan Valley have been
assassinated month after month, allegedly by a combination of private
security guards working for land landowners and state security forces,
some of which receive training and funding from the U.S.
As Presidential elections loom on November 18, 2013, the new
opposition party LIBRE is leading strongly in all polls, with deposed
President Zelaya's wife Xiomara Castro well ahead of both the
traditional ruling parties, and new splinter parties.
At least six LIBRE officers and candidates have been assassinated in
the past year. In a concerted pattern, members of the opposition more
broadly have been targeted for assassinations and death threats.
Since the coup, 206 members of opposition have been assassinated,
according to COFADEH (Committee of Families of the Detained and
Disappeared of Honduras), the leading Honduran human rights group.
Honduras
What is underway in these elections
A
future of peace with social justice with economic
equity and dignity. Or a future of more violence,
Repression and Poverty in this Presidential and
Legislative Elections of November 24, 2013