Presidential and parliamentary elections in Honduras 2017
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The 2017 presidential and parliamentary elections in Honduras took place on November 26th. After several interim results that changed again and again and a failure of the counting EDP, the choice is highly controversial. As of December 8, 2017, several opposition parties requested that the result of the presidential election be annulled. The Honduran Electoral Commission ordered a partial recount of the votes. On December 17, 2017, the Supreme Electoral Court declared incumbent Juan Orlando Hernández the winner of the presidential election.
In protests by the opposition against the incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernández and his Partido Nacional de Honduras (PNH) at least 17 people have died since the election. The protest movement called for a national general strike and a boycott of Hernández's regular inauguration on January 27, 2018.
background
The Honduran constitution expressly forbids a politician to hold the office of president twice. Only a constituent assembly elected by the population can amend this article. A violation against this is considered treason . Incumbent Hernández with his PNH still ran again. The Supreme Court of the country, considered to be surrendered, declared the ban on re-election in early 2017 to be "inapplicable". The electoral court (TSE) confirmed this decision.
The left-wing former president Manuel Zelaya was ousted from office in 2009 on charges of seeking re-election, which is prohibited by the constitution. Zelaya had properly called a referendum in which the population should vote on the admission of a new candidacy. Zelaya's party LIBRE is represented in the party alliance of Nasralla "Alliance against the dictatorship".
One of the opposition candidates Salvador Nasralla , a candidate of the opposition alliance, criticized the fact that both the Organization of American States (OAS) and the EU sent election observers. This would legitimize Hernández's unconstitutional candidacy.
In Latin America, Honduras is one of the poorest countries and has the highest murder rate in the world . The organization Global Witness Watch classified Honduras before the election as the most dangerous country for activists who campaign for land rights . 131 activists were murdered between 2010 and the 2017 election. Members of the LGBT community and journalists are also constantly being attacked.
choice
Around six million people were eligible to vote in the presidential elections on November 26, 2017 . The national census recorded 6,046,873 Hondurans who were able to vote in the elections. Around 51,000 people residing abroad, the majority in the USA , were also allowed to vote. Nine candidates ran for the highest office in the state. Among the presidential candidates was Juan Orlando Hernández (National Party), who is running for re-election. The most promising challenger was the sports reporter Salvador Nasralla (Alliance against the dictatorship), as well as the candidate of the Liberal Party, Luis Zelaya . In March 2017, the following other candidates also met the necessary requirements for a list for election: Eliseo Vallecillo (Vamos Party), Lucas Evangelisto Aguilera Pineda (Christian Democratic Party of Honduras), the former General Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velázquez (Patriotic Honduran Alliance), Isaías Fonseca Aguilar (Movement Broad Front) and Marlene Elizabeth Alvarenga Castellanos for the (Pac anti-corruption party).
In addition to the president and 128 congressmen, 20 members of the Central American Parliament and 298 mayors, 198 vice mayors and 2,092 municipal councilors were elected in the election.
Election process
In the first projections and shortly afterwards, the opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla was clearly ahead - in some cases by just under five percentage points. After almost all of the votes had been counted, incumbent Hernández was just ahead of Nasralla.
Der Spiegel wrote the development was “at least remarkable”. The electoral authority did not publish a single projection between Sunday night, the day of the election, and Tuesday, November 28, 2017. On Tuesday, Salvador Nasralla's lead suddenly shrunk to a few percentage points. One day later on November 29, 2017, the electoral authority's computer system allegedly failed. Another day later, on the morning of November 30th, Hernández was suddenly clearly ahead. The Honduras electoral commission had until December 26, 2017 to announce an official election result.
Research by the UK's Economist magazine suggests that the count may indeed have been irregular and fraudulent. The journalists used population statistics to evaluate the published results. In the same constituencies, first Nasralla, but later Hernández was shown the winner. The probability of such a shift due to mathematical and logical reasons ( algebra ) without manipulation is, according to the "Economist", "close to zero".
On November 8, 2017, Salvador Nasralla (Alliance against the Dictatorship) and the Liberal Party of candidate Luis Zelaya requested that the election be annulled.
Announcement of the election results
On December 17, the Supreme Electoral Court said Hernández received 42.95% and his challenger Nasralla received 41.24%. The court declared Hernández the election winner. The chairman of the electoral court, David Matamoros, said at the announcement that the presidential election was more "transparent" than ever in Honduras.
The opposition did not recognize the result and openly accused the government of electoral fraud. The Organization of American States called for new elections hours after the Hernandez victory was announced. The observation mission of the OAS had attested the election a lack of integrity, it was "of a very low technical quality" and was peppered with irregularities.
Protests
Nasralla and former President Manuel Zelaya called on opposition supporters to take to the streets peacefully "against the fraud". Protests across the country followed, some of which turned into violence. Looters and violent criminals also took advantage of the situation and mingled with opposition supporters. The former central bank chief Hugo Noé Pino emphasized that it was important to prevent the National Party of Hernández from ultimately establishing a dictatorship in Honduras with the help of a fraud supported by the electoral authority. A 19-year-old was shot dead during the protests. At least 17 people died in total.
The protests continued in January 2018. The protest movement called for a national general strike and a boycott of Hernández's regular inauguration on January 27, 2018.
The government declared a state of emergency for the entire country and imposed a curfew for the coming nights between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
International reactions
President Hernández had presented himself as a guarantor of stability during the election campaign. Two days after the presidential and parliamentary elections, the US administration of President Trump signaled its support to the incumbent in power. The US supports the government with aid payments; The prerequisite was a positive assessment of the situation in the country. According to the USA, the human rights situation in Honduras is satisfactory and the fight against corruption is being carried out efficiently. According to the New York Times , Hernández saw this assessment of the USA as a signal to maintain his power in Honduras despite all odds.
The Organization of American States election observers said the election was ruled by irregularities and that a clear winner was impossible to determine. They called for new elections.
Individual evidence
- ^ Honduras - Opposition requests election cancellation. In: Deutschlandfunk. Retrieved December 11, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Electoral authority declares Hernández the winner of the presidential election in Honduras . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 18, 2017, ISSN 0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed December 18, 2017]).
- ↑ Elections: Honduras Crisis: State of Emergency and Dead People by Choice . In: The time . December 3, 2017, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 11, 2017]).
- ↑ a b c Sarah Kinosian: Call for fresh election Honduras after president Juan Orlando Hernández wins . In: The Guardian . December 18, 2017, ISSN 0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed December 21, 2017]).
- ↑ a b c Honduras: Thousands March to Protest Fraud in Re-Election of Juan Orlando Hernández . In: Democracy Now! ( democracynow.org [accessed January 16, 2018]).
- ^ A b c Wolf-Dieter Vogel: Before the election in Honduras: Corrupt and plagued by violence . In: The daily newspaper: taz . November 25, 2017, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed December 11, 2017]).
- ↑ a b c d e Klaus Ehringfeld: Presidential election in Honduras: "This is the way to dictatorship". In: Spiegel Online. December 3, 2017, accessed December 11, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Opposition requests that the presidential election in Honduras be canceled. In: Reuters Editorial. Retrieved December 13, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c An overview of the presidential elections in Honduras. In: amerika21. Retrieved December 16, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Power struggle in Honduras should last until Christmas. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
- ↑ Central America: Presidential election throws Honduras into chaos . In: The time . December 4, 2017, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
- ↑ agencies / muv; reia: SRF News: After the presidential election - Honduras government imposes curfew. In: SRF4 News 09:00 a.m. Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), December 2, 2017, accessed on December 12, 2017 .