Political tension in Honduras is reaching dangerous levels. The call to mobilize the bases of the ruling Free Party, launched by former President José Manuel Zelaya, generated unrest which put the electoral authorities on alert. The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Ana Paola Hall, on Monday asked international observers to “document the unacceptable attack on democracy that some are planning and carrying out” and warned of the “considerable risk of losing the electoral process”. Hall requested the military’s support so the military could guard the polls’ facilities, where the special recount of inconsistent ballots that will define a close election must begin. Meanwhile, the OAS demanded that election authorities “immediately begin” this review.
The process, which should have started on Saturday, was paralyzed after members of the Liberal Party of Libre and Salvador Nasralla decided not to join the Special Verification and Recount Commissions (JEVR), a necessary step to guarantee transparency of control. “The actions continue which prevent the necessary conditions from being met to begin the special investigation. Faced with these events, which constitute a crime, support has been requested from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to protect the security of the CNE personnel, the electoral materials located there and the installations,” Hall reported.
The official alerted the population of the “considerable risk of losing our freedom and, consequently, of losing the electoral process for which citizens fought so hard with exemplary conduct and a desire for peace.” Furthermore, he asked the community and international observers to “document the unacceptable attack on democracy that some are planning and executing, and which can trigger unsuspected and unsustainable situations that the country cannot allow.” Hall said that “the electoral process must continue until the declaration is obtained and this is how it will happen. To those who undermine Honduran democracy, I remind you: the world watches and history judges relentlessly.”
Zelaya led a rally this weekend with the Free bases which was also attended by the ruling party’s candidate, Rixi Moncada, who obtained barely 19% support in the November 30 elections. The former president, overthrown by a coup in 2009, raised during the party meeting the theory of electoral fraud which would have deprived Moncada of victory and called on his bases to mobilize. “If we don’t do anything, what can happen? In four years they will do the same thing again,” Zelaya said. Hundreds of supporters of the ruling party demonstrated this Monday at the CNE facilities, where the counting should begin, by throwing stones and burning tires, which prevented, according to the electoral authorities, its start, given that the protests do not allow electoral agents to begin the manual recount of around 15% of the reports, or 2,700 ballots, which present “inconsistencies”.
The latest preliminary results presented by the CNE maintain a close result between the liberal Nasralla and Nasry Asfura, the candidate of the conservative National Party supported by US President Donald Trump. Asfura received 40.5% support compared to 39.2% for Nasralla. The liberal denounced “cheating” in the control which, according to him, affected the results of 19,167 minutes.
The politician congratulated José Antonio Kast on Monday on his victory in Chile and compared the agility of the vote count in that country with the clumsiness of the process still underway in Honduras. “Democracy prevails there and the speed with which the results are announced on the same day contrasts with Honduras, where we have already been waiting for more than two weeks for the result of the November 30 elections. We must learn from democracies like Chile, where leaders do not decide on organized crime and where the popular will prevails,” Naralla wrote in X.
Representatives of the National Party, in turn, accused the government of President Xiomara Castro of carrying out a “coup d’état” and accused Manuel Zelaya of maneuvering to delay the official declaration of elections. “Attention international community, friendly countries and observers of the electoral process, you are alerted of a self-coup d’état in Honduras. Zelaya, the destroyer of democracy, who was the power behind the throne during these four years of the Free government, clings to not leaving power and calls on his violent groups to take to the streets to avoid the count and so that there is no declaration”, denounced, also on social networks, Tomás Zambrano, president of the bench of the Party national in the Honduran Parliament.
As Honduras descends into chaos and political paralysis, the electoral observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) launched an urgent appeal to the CNE on Monday. to “immediately begin” the ongoing recount and publish the official results as soon as possible. The mission, led by former Paraguayan Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga, asked political leaders to avoid practices “that could sabotage” an election marked by delay and clumsiness in vote counting, allegations of fraud, the call to mobilize his party’s official bases and President Castro’s criticism of Donald Trump’s brazen intervention.
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