A Week Before “Elections” in Honduras, Candidate Resignations, More Censorship and Repression

[Judi Lynn]

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
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
November 22, 2009

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.”


Honduras Political Process

For some background on Honduran politics, there are 18 regional departments in the country where each is represented in Congress in accordance with its population. There are a total of 128 Congresspeople (Diputados), 23 of which are from Francisco Morazan (F.M.) where the capital Tegucigalpa is located, and 20 from Cortes, home to the largest industrial city, San Pedro Sula. There are five registered political parties with the following members in the National Congress: Liberal (62), National (55), Democratic Union (5), Christian Democracy (4), and the Innovation and Unity Party (2).

Each party nominates the maximum number of Congressional representatives for their department’s election. Therefore going to the polls in Tegucigalpa, one may choose 23 candidates among 115 faces and sometimes more if including independent candidates. Ballots have a photograph of each candidate that runs for these elected positions. Citizens vote on three ballots for the presidency, diputados and mayors. (The day Zelaya was ousted the population was supposed to vote on creation of ‘the cuarta urna’ meaning the fourth ballot box.)

Generally, the electoral process is overseen by the TSE, which according to the Electoral Law (Decree 44-2004) is an autonomous and independent organization. Their argument to validate the elections lies in that the convocation for the general elections was made on the May 29, 2009, almost one month before the coup took place. Interestingly, two of the three presiding judges were illegally appointed while Micheletti was then President of Congress. Enrique Ortez Sequeira, formerly a member of the City Council of Tegucigalpa (L) and David Matamoros Batzon (N), formerly a member of Congress are both constitutionally not allowed to preside over the process given their posts as elected officials when they were appointed.

Since August 11, the National Front Against the Coup D’état has communicated that without the restitution of President Manuel Zelaya they would boycott the elections. Despite all the international organizations that will not recognize the elections including the European Union, the Rio Group, the UN, UnaSur and the OEA, the TSE and the de facto government insist elections will be free, transparent and take place as scheduled. However, on Nov 8 El Heraldo published an article saying that “calls against the election process on November 29 will not go unpunished.”

Padre Andres Tamayo, an El Salvadorian priest naturalized as a Honduran citizen, is among those with charges against him in the District Attorney’s office for openly calling to boycott the elections. He has won the prestigious Goldman environmental prize in 2005 for protecting the forests in Olancho and has been living in Honduras for the last 26 years. After spending 56 days in the Brazilian Embassy and needing to return to El Salvador for personal reasons, his naturalization status was revoked and he was escorted out of the country.

Another interesting charge includes Andres Pavon, the President of CODEH, (Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras), who is charged with “defamation of Romeo Vasquez Velasquez,” the general of the armed forces. After publically expressing concern that a massacre was planned for Election Day and that Hondurans should stay at home to avoid hostility, he has also been charged for “impeding the elections.”


Candidates Withdraw from Ballot

While the official campaign season began August 31, many candidates have been more concerned with solving the political crisis than focusing on campaigning. As part of the resistance front, they argue that elections will legitimize the coup and that the country does not meet the conditions for free and fair elections. Carlos H. Reyes is the first ever independent candidate to run for President in Honduras. He withdrew officially on November 8 after citing that “The observers contracted by the Supreme Tribunal Electoral are not a guarantee for the security and transparency of the electoral process because they are the same organizations that have justified the coup d’etat.”

Maria Margarita Zelaya Rivas, the “designado” or Vice Presidential candidate for the majority party in Congress, the Liberal party, (and cousin of President Zelaya) also withdrew her candidacy stating “my resignation speaks for… those that cannot express their thoughts for fear that the de facto government will take reprisals against them.”

More:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue62/article3946.html