Countdown to the Honduran Electoral Farce

[Judi Lynn]

Countdown to the Honduran Electoral Farce
Friday, 27 November 2009, 4:36 pm
Column: Julie Webb-Pullman

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Deputies, mayors and candidates lining up at the
Electoral Tribunal to submit their letters of resignation

From street vendors to specialists in internal medicine, retired people to professionals the resistance has come into the streets again today, as they have every day since the June 28 coup While the corporate media pretend it is business as usual (which if one considers the corruption, exploitation and human rights abuses, it undoubtedly is), that is not true of the tens of thousands whose daily lives have been put on hold for the last five months as they stand up to brutal repression for daring to demand their right to self-determination. Schools have close, teachers not been paid, many businesses have gone broke and been forced to close down.

From street vendors to specialists in internal medicine, retired people to professionals the resistance has come into the streets again today, as they have every day since the June 28 coup While the corporate media pretend it is business as usual (which if one considers the corruption, exploitation and human rights abuses, it undoubtedly is), that is not true of the tens of thousands whose daily lives have been put on hold for the last five months as they stand up to brutal repression for daring to demand their right to self-determination. Schools have close, teachers not been paid, many businesses have gone broke and been forced to close down.

The resistance is not just about the return of the constitutional President, Manuel Zelaya, but also about the peoples’ right to call a constituent assembly, their right to set up a process to develop a new constitution to replace the present one drawn up during the succession of military juntas controlling the country between the coup of 1963 until 1981, and that favours only a few - the rich oligarchs.

Whatever flights of fancy the U.S. media is indulging in to pass off this week’s elections as valid, no-one here is in any doubt that they in no way resemble the free, fair and open process that is the hallmark of a true democracy.

http://img.scoop.co.nz.nyud.net:8090/stories/images/0911/301906b8806d55ef5f44.jpeg

4WD with no number plates

The 4WDs and vans with tinted windows and no number plates cruising the street, and as often as not entering and leaving the heavily guarded basement car-park of the Electoral Tribunal itself, are indicative of the lack of accountability or transparency in the conduct of these elections. Such vehicles are precisely the same ones involved in the snatching of social movement leaders from streets and houses, people who later turn up beaten, tortured, dead – or not at all.

More:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0911/S00312.htm

[David__77]

1. It is critical that the developing countries reject the "election."

The vast majority will. The coup government will not sit in the United Nations or the OAS or other international bodies. The US may choose to isolate itself by supporting it, but I am still unsure if it will do so. Doing this would only strengthen the hand of Latin solidarity against imperialism.

[clear eye]

2. Thank you

for seeking out and sharing information about what's happening on the ground in Honduras.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Any wagers as to our State Department recognizing election results

as it did in Karzai's case?