Election Crisis In Honduras Sparked By Violence And Corruption

Frustrations over upcoming election results in Honduras turned violent on Friday, December 1, causing twelve injuries to civilians according to police reports. Tear gas was deployed to shut down protests that occurred at multiple locations, such as outside the vote counting centre in Tegucigalpa. A curfew was put in place to restrict gatherings from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., with the only acceptations to the rule being food transporters, health care workers, and approved press. The citizens of Honduras have awaited official elections results for almost a full week, and many believe the election has been rigged. The autocratic leader of the National party and current president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, is being accused of rigging elections and denying Hondurans the ability to choose their president. The leader of the Opposition Alliance, Salvador Nasralla, has been the front-runner in the campaign against Hernandez, and openly denies the credibility of the election.

“They take us for idiots and want to steal our victory,” Nasralla said as he rallied his supporters against the controversial election results. While Nasralla and Hernandez both signed a document that said they would respect election results, almost immediately after the document was signed vote counting was paused due to an apparent computer glitch. “All the irregularities have been about buying time in order to reverse the real voting trend in order to declare Hernandez the winner. It’s obvious that electoral fraud has taken place … in a manner which was predetermined,” said economist and former professor at Central American Technological University in Tegucigalpa.

For a majority of the vote counting, it appeared that Nasralla would win the election, but just as the number of votes counted reached 90% it was reported by the Supreme Election Tribunal (TSE) that Hernandez had taken the lead. Because of the serious questioning of election results, the TSE has not declared a winner, and the Organization of American States wrote in a letter that results should not be released until all ballots are processed. “This is the only way to restore confidence in this election and in the integrity of the popular will,” it said in the letter to the Honduran government.

Corruption, high levels of poverty, and a long history of military governments have caused persistent political instability in Honduras. The violent clashes that took place on Friday were a direct result of the poor living conditions faced by the people of Honduras, and the government’s refusal to listen to dissenting opinions from below. For years the Honduran government has been silencing dissent in the country, and for many citizens, the current curfew is eerily similar to the one put in place during the 2009 coup of then-President Manuel Zelaya. What is even more striking is that the 2009 coup occurred because Zelaya proposed a constitutional change that would allow him to run for a second term, and that exact constitutional change occurred during the presidency of Juan Orlando Hernandez, when several Supreme Court judges allied with him voted to lift the constitutional ban on running for a second term. The constitutional change is the reason Hernandez can run in 2017, and is a clear example of why there is so much distrust of the government.

It is up to the Honduran government currently led by Juan Orlando Hernandez to provide a fair and transparent release of election results. It is also up to the international community to hold the government of Honduras accountable to free and fair elections. “The international community especially the EU, US, and OAS need to drop the false impartiality and instead take an active role in demanding and observing a physical recount as the TSE is clearly not credible,” said Jesuit human rights leader Ismael Moreno. Moreno is correct, and if nothing is done to hold the Honduran government accountable, the people of Honduras will be forced to resist their government. A peaceful solution must found, and that means complete government accountability.

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