2013 Honduran general election

Honduran general election, 2013

November 24, 2013

110x110px Nominee Juan Orlando Hernández Xiomara Castro Party National Party LIBRE Popular vote 1,149,302 896,498 Percentage 36.89% 28.78%   Nominee Mauricio Villeda Salvador Nasralla Party Liberal Party Partido Anticorrupción Popular vote 632,320 418,443 Percentage 20.30% 13.43%

President before election Porfirio Lobo Sosa National Party Elected President Juan Orlando Hernández National Party

General elections were held in Honduras on November 24, 2013. Voters went to the polls to elect:

• A new President of Honduras to serve a four-year term starting January 27, 2014 along with the 3 respective Vice Presidents;
• 128 members to serve four-year terms in the National Congress;
• 298 Mayors and vice-mayors and their respective councilors; and
• 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament.

The closely watched presidential election saw a field of eight candidates vying to succeed outgoing President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who is not eligible to run for re-election. Salvador Nasralla, a sports journalist and television personality, and Xiomara Castro, the wife of the deposed president Mel Zelaya, both candidates from newly formed political parties (the Anti-Corruption Party and Libre, respectively) were leading in most of the early polls. However, as the election neared, the candidates of the two traditional parties – Juan Orlando Hernández of the National Party and Mauricio Villeda of the Liberal Party – both surged in the polls.

Background

This is the first election to be contested by the opposition since the controversial and polarising 2009 Honduran coup d'état. The social mobilization since then led to the founding of the main opposition party, Libre.

The two-party system

Honduras has historically been dominated by a two-party system – the National Party and the Liberal Party. This election represents the first time in Honduran history in which other parties have a chance at winning the presidency or at least gaining a significant representation in the Congress, four of which find their genesis post-coup.

Human rights concerns

The elections are set to take place amidst a deteriorating human rights situations. Amnesty International called attention to the killings of human rights defenders in the lead-up to the election, noting that Honduras has the highest homicide rate in the world yet only twenty percent of homicides are investigated. Honduran human rights organizations formed the Board of Analysis on the Human Rights Situation to monitor human rights violations surrounding the election, pointing to the level of political violence in the country: human rights group Rights Action examined the period between May 2012 and October 2013 and documented 36 killings and 24 armed attacks against pre-candidates, candidates, their families and campaign leaders across all parties, with Libre experiencing the majority of both armed attacks and killings. In light of this situation, 24 U.S. Senators signed a letter to the U.S. State Department expressing their concerns about the upcoming elections.

Campaign

Key electoral issues have been citizen security, organized crime, unemployment, and corruption. One of the main components of Hernández's campaign is his promise to put "a soldier on every corner." For her part, Castro has emphasized the need for community policing and secure borders.

Presidential election

Primaries

Primaries were held for the National Party, Liberal Party and Libre.

National

Juan Orlando Hernández, president of the National Congress of Honduras, won the presidential nomination of the National Party. The other candidates were Ricardo Álvarez (the Mayor of Tegucigalpa), Fernando Anduray (National Congress deputy), Victor Hugo Barnica (Third Vice President of Honduras), Eva Fernandez, Loreley Fernandez, and Miguel Pastor (Secretary of State for Public Works, Transport, and Housing). The Supreme Electoral Tribunal certified Hernández's victory, but Álvarez immediately presented an appeal, accusing Hernández of fraud and asking for a recount. The appeal was rejected by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, four of whose five members were replaced by Hernández a month earlier in a move widely criticized as an illegal "technical coup". Álvarez and Pastor refused to attend the party convention in protest, claiming that they were being persecuted by their own party.

Liberal

Mauricio Villeda, won the presidential nomination of the Liberal Party. Other candidates in the fray for the presidential nomination were Esteban Handal Perez and Yani Rosenthal (National Congress deputy and former Minister of Presidency).

Libre

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, former First Lady of Honduras, was the sole presidential candidate in the Libre primaries.

Opinion polls

President

polling organisation, [ref]	date	poll details	candidate
			Hernández (PN)	Castro (Libre)	Villeda (PL)	Nasralla (PAC)	(other response)
Cid/Gallup	6–12 September 2013	national; 1220 adults	27%	29%	15%	11%
Paradigma	16–24 September 2013	national; 2400 adults	21.9%	22.8%	12.0%	10.0%	Others: 1%; Don’t know/no response: 11%; None: 21.3%
TecniMerk	28 September – 5 October 2013	national; 2500 adults	21.0%	31.2%	13.3%	14.8%	Don’t know/no response: 18.5%
Cid/Gallup	9–15 October 2013	national; 1525 adults	28%	27%	17%	9%
Paradigma	10–19 October 2013	national; 4025 adults	25.7%	22.2%	10.7%	9.9%	Others: 0.7%; Don’t know/no response: 12.3%; None: 18.5%

Congress

polling organisation, [ref]	date	poll details	PN	Libre	PL	PAC	Other party	None/Independents/No answer
Cid/Gallup	6–12 September 2013	national; 1220 adults	32%	22%	21%	8%	17%
Paradigma	16–24 September 2013	national; 2400 adults	28.7%	20.6%	19.1%	3.7%	0.9%	27.0%
TecniMerk	28 September – 5 October 2013	national; 2500 adults	28.5%	28.2%	14.8%	9.6%
Cid/Gallup	9–15 October 2013	national; 1525 adults	35%	19%	22%	6%	18%
Paradigma	10–19 October 2013	national; 4025 adults	30.0%	20.0%	18.0%	3.2%	0.5%	28.3%

Conduct

Honduran elections have historically been marred by fraud, and polls leading up to the elections found that 59% of Hondurans believe the elections will be fraudulent. However, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has stated that these will be the most clean and fair elections in Honduras's history, and both the traditionally dominant parties – the National and Liberal parties – agree. The newly formed Libre Party and Anti-Corruption Party fear that there will be fraud, a position backed by the Carter Center. Anti-Corruption Party candidate Salvador Nasralla publicly denounced attempts at vote-buying by the National Party across the country. Nasralla highlighted National Party control of key government institutions like the Public Ministry and the Supreme Court. Dana Frank, writing in The Nation, echoed these concerns, noting National Party candidate Hernández's participation in both the illegal naming of a new attorney general in August 2013 and the illegal destitution of four Supreme Court judges in December 2012, the latter of which ultimately resulted in Hernández securing his party's nomination for the presidency.

The TSE has stated that over 700 international election observers, representing various governments and organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the European Union, and the Carter Center, will be present to monitor the elections. In the days before the election, international observers in the department of Yoro and in the capital Tegucigalpa reported targeted harassment and intimidation on the part of immigration officials and unidentified armed men. The TSE confirmed these reports and ordered the Honduran immigration authorities to stop all of these types of operations concerning election observers.

Results

President

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Juan Orlando Hernández	National Party	1,149,302	36.89
Xiomara Castro	Liberty and Refoundation	896,498	28.78
Mauricio Villeda	Liberal Party	632,320	20.30
Salvador Nasralla	Anti-Corruption Party	418,443	13.43
Romeo Vásquez Velásquez	Patriotic Alliance	6,105	0.20
Orle Solís	Christian Democratic Party	5,194	0.17
Jorge Aguilar Paredes	Innovation and Unity Party	4,468	0.14
Andrés Pavón	FAPER–Democratic Unification	3,118	0.10
Total		3,115,448	100
Valid votes		3,115,448	95.12
Invalid votes		108,171	3.30
Blank votes		51,727	1.58
Total votes		3,275,346	100
Registered voters/turnout		5,355,112	61.16
Source: TSE

National Congress

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
National Party	9,255,904	33.64	48	–23
Liberty and Refoundation	7,568,392	27.51	37	New
Liberal Party	4,670,157	16.97	27	–18
Anti-Corruption Party	4,169,245	15.15	13	New
Innovation and Unity Party	507,958	1.85	1	–2
Democratic Unification Party	460,814	1.67	1	–3
Christian Democratic Party	444,734	1.62	1	–4
Patriotic Alliance	272,398	0.99	0	New
FAPER–Democratic Unification Party	128,488	0.47	0	–
Independent Socialist candidates	20,429	0.07	0	–
FAPER	9,011	0.03	0	New
United for Choluteca	8,542	0.03	0	–
Total	27,516,072	100	128	0
Valid votes	2,699,544	85.98
Invalid votes	155,060	4.94
Blank votes	285,088	9.08
Total votes	3,139,692	100
Registered voters/turnout	5,308,781	59.14
Source: TSE

Popular vote
PNH			33.64%
LIBRE			27.51%
PLH			16.97%
PAC			15.15%
PINU			1.85%
PUD			1.67%
DC			1.62%
ALIANZA			0.99%
Others			0.60%

Parliament seats
PNH			37.50%
LIBRE			28.91%
PLH			21.09%
PAC			10.16%
PINU			0.78%
PUD			0.78%
DC			0.78%

Aftermath

Juan Orlando Hernández was announced as the winner in a result the Supreme Electoral Tribunal's head, David Matamoros, called "irreversible", this followed initial claims by both leading candidates of having won. While opposition protests continued, Hernández said the result was "not negotiable with anybody" and named a transition team.

However Castro and Nasralla have disputed the results, and Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro accused the United States of "meddling in the internal affairs of Hondurans." Castro called on her supporters to hold a protest on Saturday 30 November.

According to the North American Congress on Latin America, "the elections have been fraught with irregularities and violent intimidation, threatening to throw the embattled nation into further political disarray." However, observers from the Organization of American States and the United Nations declared that the elections met international standards and were both free and fair.

See also

• Parliamentary candidates in the Honduran general election, 2013