Voters went to the polls on November 26, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, to cast their ballots in the Honduran election. Nearly two weeks later, the final result is not clear. Incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez appears to have won a narrow victory, but his lead challenger, Salvador Nasralla, alleges voter fraud.
Leftist supporters of Nasralla have been protesting violently for more than a week, alleging that the election was stolen from them. When the vote counting began, Nasralla led in the early returns. With about half the vote counted, he led by five points, and looked set to be the winner.
Nasralla’s supporters flooded the streets, setting fires, blockading roads, and looting.
The government halted the vote counting for 24 hours, saying there were irregularities in the process and that not all the ballots were in yet. Once the count resumed, President Hernandez began to gain ground, and steadily increased his share of the vote. The electoral commission said that the final tally showed Hernandez leading Nasralla by 1.6 percentage points, about 43 to 41 per cent.
Salvador Nasralla and his supporters called foul, and said the President was stealing the election. Nasralla has proclaimed himself the winner of the election, and said that he is the rightful president of Honduras. His supporters flooded the streets, setting fires, blockading roads, and looting.
Police, OAS Oppose Curfew
The government imposed a curfew from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and called out the police and National Guard. After a few days of the curfew, however, the national police announced that they would no longer enforce it. “We want peace, and we will not follow government orders – we’re tired of this,” a police spokesman said. “We aren’t with a political ideology. We can’t keep confronting people, and we don’t want to repress and violate the rights of the Honduran people.”
“This is not a strike, this not about salaries or money. It’s that we have family. We are tired. And our job is to give peace and security to the Honduran people, not repress them. We want all Hondurans to be safe.”
The electoral commission has promised to conduct a full recount.
The Organization of American States (OAS) called on the government to lift the curfew, and today the government complied in most areas. OAS also has called for a recount. The electoral commission conducted a partial recount, 1,000 precincts, but Nasralla insists on recounting at least 5,000 precincts, about a third of the ballots cast. The electoral commission has promised to conduct a full recount, but has yet to release details on how it will be done.
The Candidates
Nasralla is a TV personality – a former sportscaster and anchor – born of Lebanese immigrants. The alliance of parties he heads is leftist, although it is not clear that he holds any strong personal ideology. He campaigned on a platform of free education through college, free transportation, and continued government ownership of public services. His pledge to do away with tolls on the roads was well received; the tolls are deeply unpopular.
President Hernandez is a free market conservative who ran his first campaign promising law and order. During his tenure, the per capita murder rate in Honduras has been cut in half, and he promises to continue his fight against criminal gangs. He is the fifteenth of seventeen children, and two of his siblings also are political officials.
American Support?
President Hernandez is liked by the American government, because of his law-and-order campaign. He has not only cut the murder rate, but his war on criminal gangs has also cut drug trafficking through Honduras to America. The lower crime rate has stabilized the country, and stemmed the tide of migration north.
The Trump Administration announced today that it has certified Honduran progress on human rights and anticorruption measures. Annual certification is required for Honduras to receive U.S. aid to train security forces for the war on drugs. Some international NGO workers criticized the move, saying it suggests that the U.S. is taking sides with Hernandez in the midst of the crisis. Former U.S. government officials point out that the certification took place before the crisis, but was only announced today.
Now that the curfew has been lifted and the electoral commission has promised a full and public recount, it is likely that the crisis will eventually be resolved. It is not clear who will win. It is certain, however, that the Honduran election has left the voters divided, and the next president will have to work hard to unite them.
