Voter Participation in Honduran Election
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Fiesta Cívica
77, 47, 62, 35. Sounds like a combination lock, doesn’t it? But these are the claims for voter participation in yesterday’s election. I’d love to believe 62 percent of registered voters did vote, and know that the 35 percent number is an invention. But should voter participation really have been 47 percent, it would be the lowest turnout in any election in Honduran History.
Before the elections were done, Manuel Zelaya said voter turnout was a low 35%. Cut he clearly could know that, unless he were omniscient, as the votes had not even been counted yet. On channel five, the first number given for voter participation was 61 percent, according to exit polls. Then came the 77 percent number, which seemingly was arbitrary, and was subsequently ignored. At ten p.m. the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) announced their preliminary results. They said that they had counted over half the votes, but had been unable to verify any of the polling places because of a software glitch. Apparently they have not heard of setting up redundancy to lower risk of failure in a system. They announced a 47 percent voter participation, a low amount but consistent with the trend of lowering voter turnout in the past elections. But most of the news media in Honduras or around the world have published a voter participation of 61.3 or 62 percent. The TSE website which was to announce the results has been down since last night.
I had to stop watching around 11 because I needed to get ready for work. Did I miss any official announcement by the TSE?
Why is this important? Because Zelaya’s hoped a low turnout would validate his claim that the people of Honduras did not want an election. A high turnout would give the new president-elect a mandate. 47 percent is not very low, but it is lower than ever before. A Miami Herald article gives a twist to this, saying that turnout was low in rural areas because people were afraid of repercussions, not by Micheletti’s government, but by members of the “resistencia”. Lifelong liberals abstained the vote or even switched political parties because of the debacle between Zelaya and Micheletti, both liberals.
The media has taken up the Honduran cause and are now, even CNN, transmitting an anti-Zelaya message. Why am I not happy with that? Because I don’t trust them anymore. I want the truth. I want justice. Of course I support the election, and our new president-elect Porfirio Lobo. Of course I want everyone to recognize Honduras again and the crisis to end. But I want the truth!
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I have spoken to about 50 people. Approximately 30 of them voted.
The real figure is actually higher.
There thousands of Hondurans in the US who still have ID’s and show up on the list of registered voters. Theoretically they could change there address and vote in the States where most of them are. Most of them do not vote in the States and only 6 cities offer them a place to vote.
There are many Hondurans in Spain as well and they show up on the list. I saw several names on the list in our barrio that are in Spain and the US. That would put the real number at 70-75%
There are many countries that already agreed to accept.
According to Wolf, U.S., Germany, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Indonesia, UAE and France, “said they will accept” the process.
Of course the ALBA idiots will never accept.
There are bunch in the middle that wont commit either way. They seem to be pushing for the unity government to be carried out. There rhetoric suggest that they are opening the door to accept at the end of the day.
I’ve heard that the cities were the places with high turnout, but in the countryside many abstained. That would explain the difference between the 61.3 percent turnout reported in the exit polls (mostly in cities) and the 47 percent reported by the statistics firm the TSE hired.
Zelaya repeated today that he won’t accept returning to power, mostly to force the US not to recognize the elections in the end. But he has exposed, for those with eyes, his methods and ideas. Many who were fooled at the beginning are no longer believing him..
It seems clear the US will recognize, but, would like to see the agreement carried out. The agreement simply requires the congress to vote. Zelaya is out of cards. I see four options.
1. Accept the elections and ask the world to do the same. Then he could maybe save some part of his face with his countrymen. That said he would still have to deal with one of the following three.
2. Submit to the courts and defend himself.
3. Exile
4. Stay in embassy for a life sentence.