Honduras is among the countries most skeptical of the fairness of its elections

Tegucigalpa (special digital processing) – Honduras is one of the Latin American countries most skeptical about the integrity of elections, since 2 out of 5 Hondurans believe that politicians know how they voted and do not trust to ensure confidentiality, as revealed in their recent publication Election Barometer of the Americas 2024.

-The Americas Barometer report shows that only 28% of Hondurans believe in the confidentiality of their vote.

The barometer that takes the pulse of democratic countries, including Honduras, highlights that Hondurans doubt the secrecy of voting and have one of the lowest levels of confidence in elections, at only 28%.

To the question “Do you think the votes were counted correctly?”, respondents answered as follows: a) Sometimes (45%), b) Always (27%), and C) Never (29%). The report insists that the view that the votes were counted fairly is in the minority.

Thus, more than two in five Hondurans say that politicians can know how each of them voted (44%), while three in five Hondurans believe that this could be true in “some” cases (34%). 22% estimate that their vote is “safe” from being scrutinized by politicians.

When it comes to trust in political institutions related to elections, the answers are as follows: 30% (CSJ), 28% (President of the Republic), 27% (CN), 18% (political parties). According to the Barometer, Hondurans believe that more than half of politicians are corrupt (66%).

Election Challenges

The X-ray of election integrity has put enormous pressure on the country’s election-control entities, They are preparing in September Next, primary and internal elections will be held in March 2025, ahead of the general election in November of the same year.

The National Electoral Council (CNE), as the regulatory entity of the electoral process, the National Registry of Persons (RNP), responsible for issuing ID cards to enable the exercise of the electoral and other rights inherent to Hondurans, and the Electoral Court of Justice (ECJ) face the challenge of guaranteeing transparent, reliable and credible elections, where voters feel that their vote is respected and protected. Among these control entities is also the Integrity Policy Unit, which monitors the use and sources of political campaign funds.

The campaign officially began in September, but actually started in January 2024 at the presidential palace. It becomes officialThe candidate favored by the leadership and administration of Libertad y Refundación (Libre): Rixi Moncada. “The campaign has begun,” Libre coordinator Manuel Zelaya Rosales said in a post on the social network X. Zelaya Rosales is a former president of Honduras and a key adviser in the government of President Xiomara Castro.

The first appeal from civil society

The flag awarded in January 2024 opened a political fair, a frenzy that the CNE and the Clean Policy Group failed to stop, citing the absence of a formal call for campaigning.

They point out that the presidential candidates’ meetings are being held indoors, even though open-air gatherings have begun to occur. So far, the CNE has not made a public statement to draw attention to this call for respect, and the Clean Policy Department is even less able to make a public statement on the sources of resources used by the candidates to finance these meetings.

The political movement has begun, the controlling entities are unable to regulate it, and the obstacles they face in operating effectively include Congress’s reluctance to approve Budget sent by CNE since May Funding for the March 2025 primary and internal elections.

The route set by the electoral timetable is being fulfilled half-heartedly and in bits and pieces. The CNE has asked the National Assembly to provide a budget of 1.492 billion lempiras for internal elections and primaries, which is a 30% increase on the budget approved for the last elections of this nature four years ago.

No one at the National Congress was willing to publicly state the reasons for the delay, and a dispute arose between approval from the Ministry of Finance (whose head took over as CNE adviser in September) and secret files from the legislative branch. No one knew where in this maze the CNE’s budget request lay.

Civil society institutions such as the Network for the Defence of Democracy (RDD) and the Democratic Equality Network of Honduras (RED-H) have raised their voices calling for a credible, clean and transparent electoral process.

In its statement, the RDD said that Honduras is facing an electoral process that is polarized and uncertain, stressing the role that electoral control entities, including the CNE, must play. It urged these entities to stay away from party politicization and take steps to ensure the arrival of international observer missions in the country as well as state supervision.

It asked the CNE authorities to demonstrate the absence of “any form of bias and to adhere to the highest standards in democratic matters, thus avoiding possible conflicts of interest.”

RED-H warn The late approval of the budget requested by the CNE leads to improvisations in electoral planning, a situation in which the institution has already found itself. This improvisation has allowed two administrative practices to have negative consequences: direct purchases and budgetary expansion. Red-H warns that these delays could be due to the significant growth in the electoral budget, which indicates a surge in the amounts in 2017 and 2021.

Both RED-H and the Network for Defending Democracy point out that one of the concerns about the delay in the electoral timetable centers on the tender for the Transmission of Election Results (TREP), since it raises doubts about the transparency of the process through the lack of transparency in direct purchases and the hiring of companies with dubious reputations.

They also demanded more commitment from the Clean Policy Department to monitor the sources and use of funds in political campaigns, provide the agency with a budget and make its actions more effective with a high sanctioning capacity, rather than just aimlessly as it is now.

These and other facts, such as the absence to date of a procedural law strengthening the powers of the Electoral Court, increase uncertainty about the quality of the next electoral process, which is Character US Ambassador Laura Dogu wants the agreement to be reliable, credible and transparent.

The Venezuelan election, in which the ruling party led by President Nicolás Maduro stole the election from the opposition with obvious fraud, has led some countries to ignore Maduro’s victory and plunge the country into an unprecedented new political, institutional and social crisis. The clear direction of the results has led civil society, the private sector and even the church to demand that Honduras conduct transparent elections based on electoral integrity. The 2024 Barometer data reflects the thoughts and beliefs of the Honduran electorate. The challenge is to reverse these perceptions. (PD).