Reply #6: A Week Before “Elections” = Candidate Resignations, More Censorship and Repression [View All]

[L. Coyote]

A Week Before “Elections” in Honduras, Candidate Resignations, More Censorship and Repression
Independent Presidential Candidate and Liberal Party Vice Presidential Candidate Among Those Who Withdrew from the Ballot
By Tamar Sharabi - The Narco News Bulletin - November 22, 2009 - http://www.narconews.com/Issue62/article3946.html


TEGICUGALPA, HONDURAS, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009: Nine days before the Honduran elections are scheduled to take place, Channel 36, Cholusat Sur, has been taken off the air once again. A parallel signal has been transmitting over the station. Initially airing pornography, now the same movie has been on repeat for the second day in a row. This new attack on the press comes the morning after Micheletti announced that he would be leaving the Presidency ‘provisionally’ from November 25 until December 2 for the country “to concentrate on the electoral process and not on the political crisis.”

Micheletti’s announcement has been “welcomed” by the US State Department which currently along with Panama and Colombia are the only countries recognizing the elections. Micheletti added that he would return if there were threats to security. Officially the armed forces have been turned over to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) 30 days prior to the elections. The National Front Against the Coup D’état in an announcement called the “absence” of Micheletti’s “dictatorship…only a maneuver to hide the totalitarian role of the de facto regime and the armed forces that have been applied to an illegitimate, illegal and fraudulent electoral process.”

................

Official Resignations

On Friday November 20, 146 days since the coup, people awaited the arrival of approximately 30 electoral candidates to officially resign their candidacy. According to Rafael Barahona, a member of Zelaya’s party in resistance, many candidates have strategically waited until the last week to resign so that their respective parties have less time to name a new candidate. This will be a challenge for the TSE who by law must accept resignations until Election Day but will also unlikely have time to change the ballots.

In an article in La Tribuna, Secretary of the TSE, David Matamoros stated that only 0.1% of the candidates have resigned officially and that there were “serious problems” with removing the photographs of all the candidates that will withdraw. The article also claims that “Judge Enrique Ortez Sequeira, had informed prosecutors of the actions of the protesters, who retreated when they were tired of shouting.” Unsurprisingly, they would like to inform their readership that there will be consequences againt people who protest against the elections. However, the participants did not retire from the protest because they were tired. In fact, at 2 p.m. uniformed police and also members of the Special Command “Çobra” unit (COECO, in its Spanish initials) intimidated the people to leave. Though threatening the protesters with their clubs and cans of tear gas neither was ultimately used because the resistance movement peacefully evacuated the area.

Below is an unofficial list of candidates (the TSE would not provide an official one) that have withdrawn their candidacies.

Presidential

Carlos H Reyes, Presidential Candidate (Indep)
Maria Margarita Zelaya Rivas, ‘Designada Presidencial’ (Equivalent to Vice President), (L)

Diputados, equivalent to Congresspersons
Leonardo Mejía Bonilla, Cortes (L)
Ricardo Gamero Cortes, Cortes, (L)
Edis Antonio Moncada Eguigure, Suplente F.M. (L)
Jorge Antonio Yánes Fernandez, Olancho (UD)
Marco Tulio Fúnez, F.M. (UD)
Lino Enamorado Izaguirre, F.M. (UD)
María Carmela López, Yoro (UD)
Andres Martinez, F.M. (UD)
José María Martínez, Yoro (UD)
Ana Rosa Vda. de Mejía, Cortes, (L)
Rafael Edgardo Barahona Osorio, F.M. (L)
Marlene Paz, Cortes, (UD)
Carlos Ponce, Paraiso (PINU)
José Isidro Ponce, Olancho (UD)
José Edgardo Castro Rodríguez, Cortes, (L)
Elvia Argentina Valle Villalta, Diputada, Copan (L)
German Zepeda, Cortes (UD)

Mayors

Juventino Bonillo, Saba, Colon (Indep)
Faustino Martínez, San Pedro Sula, Cortes (Indep)
Leonardo Martinez, Yoro (UD)
Rufino Vásquez Meza, San José, La Paz (UD)
Nelson Geovany Núñez, Lima, Cortes, (UD)
Harvin Pineda, San Pedro Sula, Cortes (Indep)
Donato Quiroz, San Antonio, Cortes (L)
Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri, San Pedro Sula, (L) (Actual Mayor that was also overthrown on the 28th of June and has been in exile in Nicaragua)

Deputy Mayor

Miguel Angel Chavarría, San Antonio, Cortes (UD)
Juan Miguel (Lito) López Erazo, San Pedro Sula, Cortes (L)
María Gloria García, Lima, Cortes (UD)
Patricia Ivett Pineda, San Pedro Sula, Cortes (Indep)

(These positions are not popularly elected; they come in ‘package deals’ with the Mayors)

Regidor, equivalent to serving on City Council:
Nora Yesenia Córdova, Cortes, (Indep)
Gloria Marina Guzmán Cruz, Lima, Cortes
Mario Medrano, San Manuel, Cortes (N)
Orfilia de Mejía, San Pedro Sula, (L)
Wendy Munguía, Lima, Cortes (UD)
Regina Villamil Munoz, San Pedro Sula (Indep)