Left-wing candidate Xiomara Castro claimed victory for the Honduran presidency on Sunday evening, November 28 against the outgoing right-wing president's successor, in a country plagued by violence from drug traffickers, who have extended their corruption to highest state level.
“
We won!
Xiomara Castro said in front of his supporters gathered at the headquarters of his LIBRE party.
Voter turnout was established at the “
historic
” level of 62%, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Sunday evening, announcing the first partial results.
Read also Honduras: the president accused of helping drug traffickers
With the ballots of more than 41% of the polling centers counted, Xiomara Castro, wife of former President Manuel Zelaya overthrown in 2009 by a coup, obtained 53.46% of the vote, while her opponent from the National Party (PN, right) Nasry Asfura gets just over 34% of the vote. More than a membership vote, Xiomara Castro benefited from a sanction vote against the right-wing ruling party, according to analyst Raul Pineda, former member of the National Party. "
People will not vote for Xiomara, but against (the outgoing president) Juan Orlando Hernandez and what he represents,
" he predicted.
The CNE insisted on the provisional nature of these results and urged candidates and voters to wait for the final results. However, fireworks, shouts of joy and processions of honking cars celebrated the candidate's victory in the night in Tegucigalpa. Xiomara Castro promised on Sunday evening to "
form a government of reconciliation
" and to establish a "
participatory democracy
". "
I hold out my hand to my opponents, because I have no enemies,
" she said, promising to drive out "
hatred, corruption, drug trafficking, organized crime ...
The threat of fraud and unrest is not completely ruled out, even though the National Party candidate, Nasry Asfura, has pledged to respect the result of the vote and demanded that "
not a drop of blood
"
flow
.
The authorities mobilized 42,000 soldiers and police to monitor the 5,755 polling stations in the country and ward off possible disturbances.
In addition to their president, voters had to elect deputies and mayors.
Riots in the previous election
Honduras has been ruled for more than ten years by the National Party, under the rule of Juan Orlando Hernandez, suspected by the United States of being involved in drug trafficking. “
We need a change, however painful it is. There are so many poor people, suffering
”, testifies Hermer Sorto Paz, priest of the tourist village of Santa Lucia, about ten kilometers from Tegucigalpa. "
Let us not vote for those who for all these years have done nothing but raise money for themselves,
" he said. Sensing the tide, the PN had hardened the tone of its campaign, calling the leader of LIBRE a "
communist
" and vilifying its proposals to legalize abortion and same-sex marriage.
In 2013, Juan Orlando Hernandez beat Xiomara Castro by a short head and then broke the Constitution to run for a second term in 2017. His questionable re-election on the wire against television star Salvador Nasralla had unleashed violent demonstrations. New riots would not do the business of Washington, which "
wants to avoid a repeat of (the election) of 2017 and an increase in migratory pressure
," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank. Tens of thousands of Hondurans try to join the one million compatriots who have fled violence and misery each year, the overwhelming majority in the United States.
More than half of the ten million inhabitants live below the poverty line, which the coronavirus pandemic has only accentuated. Unemployment has almost doubled in one year, going from 5.7% in 2019 to 10.9% in 2020. With a homicide rate of 37.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, Honduras is also one of the worst countries. most dangerous in the world (excluding conflict zones). "
That (the politicians) keep their promises
" is the first wish of Abril Moncada, a 30-year-old tourism student who votes in a middle-class neighborhood of Tegucigalpa. "
Corruption ... there will be some whoever is elected
“, Resigned himself José Zelaya, 45 years old.
In the past two years, Parliament has dissolved an anti-corruption commission and adopted a new Criminal Code providing lower penalties for corruption or drug trafficking.
Many parliamentarians were targeted by the investigations of this commission.
Drug traffickers detained in the United States have implicated President Hernandez, whose brother, Tony, was sentenced by a US federal court to life in prison for his involvement in the trafficking of 185 tons of cocaine.
