Honduras: More Evidence of Election Fraud

[L. Coyote]

Source: Insidecostarica.com.

Wednesday 02 December 2009
TEGUCIGALPA - Figures manipulation, alterations in ballot boxes and other irregularities were discovered in the electoral process held on Sunday in Honduras under the coup, denounced analysts and press media.

Honduras had an election process marked by abstentionism despite figure manipulation by representatives of the de facto government, when stating that 61 percent of the electors had gone to the polls, stated investigator Ricardo Arturo Salgado.

....

The world should know that this was not a democratic process, added Salgado. He denounced the repressive atmosphere, the militarization and the censure before and after elections.

According to the Electoral Supreme Court about 60 percent of the electorate went to the polls, but the Front against the coup informed that between 65 and 70 percent abstained from voting, the highest figure in the country's history.

................

Read more: http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/december/02/centam-09120201.htm

---

The Junta made a big mistake in inflating voter numbers for the sake of legitimacy.
Now, the vote results are also thrown into the waste basket of doubt.

====================
Tegucigalpa, November 30, 2009 - Jackie McVicar, Common Frontiers Canada

After a long bus ride back from Tocoa in the northern department of Colon, we arrived in the capital today just in time to join a massive caravan organized by the Popular Resistance Front. Like the other demonstrations held since the coup d'etat on June 28, the mobilization winded through the "barrios", the neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa where supporters left their homes to show their support. This time, instead of walking, organizers decided to drive their cars in a caravan, to avoid confrontation or repression that they feared by the State security forces. Hundreds of cars and people drove through the streets honking their horns, with flags, horns and music. Both those in the caravan and people yelling support from the streets, "I didn't vote!" showed their ink-less fingers, to show they had not been registered at a polling station where a finger print as part of your id is normally taken. Though the media is reporting record high turnouts for Sunday's election, no one is buying it. .............

==== MORE ===== PREVIOUS LATEST ===========
Latin American leaders divided by Honduras election
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4165581

Parallel thread: Lobo leads Honduras presidential vote - exit polls
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4165022

[flamingdem]

1. The Honduran people are exceptionally brave nt

[EFerrari]

2. Another filthy election approved by Clinton's State Department.

[L. Coyote]

7. U.S. backs Honduras' sham election

U.S. backs Honduras' sham election
http://socialistworker.org/2009/12/02/us-backs-honduras-sham-election
December 2, 2009

Nicole Colson reports on the crackdown and resistance surrounding the bogus presidential vote last weekend in Honduras.


THE COUP regime in Honduras got what it wanted--U.S. blessing for a fraudulent election ..... the elections, orchestrated by the military dictatorship that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in late June, were far from free and democratic. For many Hondurans, the vote was little more than an attempt to whitewash a coup.

......

The National Resistance Front Against the Coup d'Etat said in a press conference on election day that abstention rates were as high as 65 percent, and that the low turnout forced the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal to extend voting by one hour in an attempt to get more votes.

Gilberto Rios, a leader of the political group Los Necios, with a base on university campuses, reported to Brazilian activists:

Never in Honduras has abstention been so great. It was over 70 percent, and added to that are 2 percent of invalid ballots and 3 percent of blank ballots. This result is more notable because of the systematic coercion of people to vote by the government and the army...There were neighborhoods where the army, along with Conservatives and Liberal leaders, went directly into the homes to look for the villagers to go and vote--and on Saturday , there were dozens of detainees.

The day after the election, the resistance organized a large caravan in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, in which people proudly showed that their index fingers hadn't been inked at the ballot box. "Lobo is the most minority president in the history of Honduras," Rios added. "Under the conditions of coercion we mentioned, he isn't supported by one in 10 people in Honduras, and in no way represents the people of our country."

................

[L. Coyote]

3. Zelaya calls Honduran election a 'fraud'

Zelaya calls Honduran election a 'fraud'
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:04:14 GMT - http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/297065,extra-zelaya-calls-honduran-election-a-fraud.html


Tegucigalpa - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya Monday condemned the presidential elections held in the Central American country a day earlier is an act of "electoral fraud."Conservative candidate Porfirio Lobo emerged as the winner in Sunday's poll, which was staged by the de facto government despite Zelaya's call for an election boycott.

Zelaya, who was ousted by a military coup and sent into exile on June 28, disputed the finding by Honduran electoral authorities that voter turnout was above 61 per cent.

Instead, he said he would show "peacefully" that more than 60 per cent of voters abstained.

"A dictatorial regime has been set up in Honduras that wants to deceive us," Zelaya said. ..... "The coup is still going on here, impunity is rife on Honduras' streets," ..................

[clear eye]

4. The elections were already illegitimate due to brutal suppression of the opposition

as well as Zelaya's absence from the ballot.

The elections were a travesty, and what is going on there is a tragedy--a return to foreign corporatist totalitarianism that has prevailed since the early 19th century.

[harmonicon]

5. Zelaya wasn't going to be on the ballot (nt)

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

8. As Zeyala wasn't legally allowed to run in the first place

I'm not sure why you feel his absence from the ballot is a crucial issue in this election.

With that said, I understand and agree with some of the complaints made about detentions and police raids, but thus far, it seems like the majority of the press releases citing fraud are relying almost exclusively on the word of the Front in all of this. I hope something a little more legit. surfaces, because relying on the people who organized the boycott to give you accurate figures on how many people actually boycotted has its problems.

[clear eye]

11. Depends on whose law you consider legitimate--

the coupsters' or international standards.

What would be illegal about allowing Zelaya onto the ballot?

As usual, you piggyback onto other DUers' objections to details of true representative democracy in Latin America, not wanting to show your true reasons for supporting corporate suppression of it.

[L. Coyote]

13. Zelaya on the ballot was not constitutional

Honduras' constitution stipulates noone previously serving as President allowed to run, ergo Presidents are limited to one term.

When Zelaya sought to ask the voters if they favored amending the constitution, this was the excuse employed by the junta propagandists against Zelaya, accusing him of wanting to amend the constitution so he could run again.

You really need to brush up on your facts before you broad brush others.

[clear eye]

16. He hadn't finished his first term. n/t

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

20. No, but that's because he broke the law and the Court ordered his removal.

[clear eye]

22. You're pulling out that old canard.

From Why President Zelaya's Actions in Honduras Were Legal and Constitutional.

The Honduran Supreme Court of Justice, Attorney General, National Congress, Armed Forces and Supreme Electoral Tribunal have all falsely accused Manuel Zelaya of attempting a referendum to extend his term in office.

According to Honduran law, this attempt would be illegal. Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution clearly states that persons, who have served as presidents, cannot be presidential candidates again. The same article also states that public officials who breach this article, as well as those that help them, directly or indirectly, will automatically lose their immunity and are subject to persecution by law. Additionally, articles 374 and 5 of the Honduran Constitution of 1982 (with amendments of 2005), clearly state that: “it is not possible to reform the Constitution regarding matters about the form of government, presidential periods, re-election and Honduran territory”, and that “reforms to article 374 of this Constitution are not subject to referendum.”

Nevertheless, this is far from what President Zelaya attempted to do in Honduras the past Sunday and which the Honduran political/military elites disliked so much. President Zelaya intended to perform a non-binding public consultation, about the conformation of an elected National Constituent Assembly. To do this, he invoked article 5 of the Honduran “Civil Participation Act” of 2006. According to this act, all public functionaries can perform non-binding public consultations to inquire what the population thinks about policy measures. This act was approved by the National Congress and it was not contested by the Supreme Court of Justice, when it was published in the Official Paper of 2006. That is, until the president of the republic employed it in a manner that was not amicable to the interests of the members of these institutions.

Furthermore, the Honduran Constitution says nothing against the conformation of an elected National Constituent Assembly, with the mandate to draw up a completely new constitution, which the Honduran public would need to approve. Such a popular participatory process would bypass the current liberal democratic one specified in article 373 of the current constitution, in which the National Congress has to approve with 2/3 of the votes, any reform to the 1982 Constitution, excluding reforms to articles 239 and 374. This means that a perfectly legal National Constituent Assembly would have a greater mandate and fewer limitations than the National Congress, because such a National Constituent Assembly would not be reforming the Constitution, but re-writing it. The National Constituent Assembly’s mandate would come directly from the Honduran people, who would have to approve the new draft for a constitution, unlike constitutional amendments that only need 2/3 of the votes in Congress. This popular constitution would be more democratic and it would contrast with the current 1982 Constitution, which was the product of a context characterized by counter-insurgency policies supported by the US-government, civil façade military governments and undemocratic policies.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

31. There's a hole in the reasoning of the article you copied and pasted

It states that certain aspects of the Honduran constitution are unalterable, which is true, and then goes on to argue that Public Opinion Polls are allowed, which is also true. However, they leave a little something out of their analysis. What's not allowed is even so much as signalling an intent to alter those certain aspects of the constitution, and forcing a poll to find out how people felt about doing so clearly signalled Zelaya's interest in doing so. As I've stated before, even the majority of his own party's representatives realize that and they were more than happy to kick him to the curb when a vote for his reinstatement was held.

[L. Coyote]

23. That is a fascist wingnut talking point, you realize!

An excuse for the coup.

[karynnj]

9. Zelaya was never going to be on the ballot - he was not eligible

to run and never was intending to. That was a RW claim.

[clear eye]

12. Duh.

Do you not see the person favored by a large majority of Hondurans not being elegible as delegitimizing the election?

[L. Coyote]

14. You misunderstand this thread

because you are unfamiliar with the basic facts.

[clear eye]

17. Not at all.

Zelaya had been deprived of finishing out his term. How is it legitimate to deny his restoration? The Hondurans seem to agree w/ me.

[karynnj]

21. No, but the fact was that he was not running, did not apply to run

and the Constitution as written did not allow it. He called for this to be reconsidered for the future, but not for him.

My point is that the RW has said that the reason he was "deposed" (ie why there was a coup) was that he was changing the Constitution so he could stay in office. That was why I wrote what I did.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

32. Even doing so for the future is prohibited under the Honduran constitution.

[L. Coyote]

6. Democracy Now: Hondurans Divided After Coup Backer Wins Presidential Election Boycotted by Zelaya

Hondurans Divided After Coup Backer Wins Presidential Election Boycotted by Zelaya Supporters
http://i3.democracynow.org/2009/12/1/hondurans_divided_after_coup_backer_wins


The Obama administration is moving further away from its stated support for the reinstatement of the ousted President Manuel Zelaya. On Monday, the State Department praised this weekend’s Honduran elections, which saw coup backer and wealthy landowner Porfirio Lobo emerge victorious with 55 percent of the vote. Zelaya’s supporters boycotted the election, and many Latin American countries have refused to recognize its outcome.....

........ rush transcript .......

.......... ARTURO VALENZUELA: While the election is a significant step in Honduras’ return to democratic and constitutional order after the 28 June coup, it’s just that, it is only a step and it’s not the last step. Given the gravity of the coup d’etat and the polarization that Honduras has undergone, both before and after the coup d’etat, it is extremely important Honduran leadership moving forward in the next few months attempt to follow the overall broad frameworks of the Tegucigalpa – San Jose Accord. By that I mean, what are the additional steps that need to be taken? A government of national unity needs to be formed. The Congress has to take a vote on the return of President Zelaya to office, and another element of the San Jose Accords that I think it would be very very important as Honduras moves forward to try to re-establish the democratic and constitutional order is the formation and the structuring of a truth commission .............

...........

AMY GOODMAN: The Honduran coup regime says turnout was relatively high at 62, but independent estimates put it at 47. Speaking in Portugal, Zelaya’s foreign minister, Patricia Roda, said most Hondurans see the vote as illegitimate.

PATRICIA RODA: What has happened is an attempt to wipe clean a military coup, which clearly could not be wiped clean. The Honduran people know what it was—a crime, and as a crime they recognize it and yesterday decided not to take part and become accomplices.

...............

[clear eye]

15. A Honduran Congressional vote would only be meaningful if

voting to return Zelaya wouldn't get a member imprisoned or "disappeared". What sort of oversight and protection is the int'l community promising?

[L. Coyote]

10. Honduras: did abstention win the vote?

Honduras: did abstention win the vote?
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 21:19 - http://www.ww4report.com/node/8026


At about 10 PM on Nov. 29, Honduras' Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) announced at a press conference that Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa of the center-right National Party (PN) had won the presidency in the general elections ... Lobo had won 52.29% .... TSE projected that the turnout was 61.3% .... six percentage points higher than in the 2005 elections.

With these results, said Enrique Ortez Sequeira, a TSE magistrate from the PL, "the world is obliged to recognize us, because today we, seven million Hondurans, have told them that we want to live in peace and democracy." (El Tiempo, San Pedro Sula, Nov. 30)

.... voter turnout, was more difficult to resolve .... the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d'Etat ... national monitoring operation had found that "the level of abstention is, at a minimum, 65-70%, the highest in the nation's history... In this form the people have castigated the coup-perpetrating candidates and the dictatorship." ... "Abstention won, even counting the votes of all the candidates; abstention was more than 60% in the country," President Zelaya said on Nov. 30......

Some independent observers also cast doubt on the TSE's projections of high turnout. A worker with the Danish Association for International Cooperation who visited voting centers in Tegucigalpa in the afternoon saw few voters, no lines and election workers passing the time in friendly conversations. (MS Central America, Nov. 30)

Although not agreeing with the boycotters' claims of 65-70% abstention, the nonprofit group that the TSE contracted to do exit polls, Fundación Hagamos Democracia (FHD), also disagreed with the official turnout projection of 61.3%. The FHD's projection for turnout was about 47.6%, significantly lower than the 2005 turnout. At the Nov. 29 press conference, TSE magistrate Ortez Sequeira noted that the FHD's exit polls were close to the TSE's projections—except on the question of turnout. Skeptics also noted TSE president Saúl Escobar's admission at the press conference that the electoral results were being delayed because of a technical problem in verifying the digitalized data. ...

..................

[naaman fletcher]

18. this sucks, and it seems like with the backing of the US there is really nothing that can be done.

change indeed.

[L. Coyote]

24. There is plenty that can be done.

The US is no longer the dictator of Latin America. Honduras will still suffer for having a dictatorship.

[L. Coyote]

19. Spain and Colombia recognize Lobo's role in Honduras

30 Nov 2009 14:16:15 GMT - http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/297013,1stlead-spain-and-colombia-recognize-lobos-role-in-honduras.html

Estoril, Portugal - Spain will "neither recognize nor ignore" Sunday's elections in Honduras, which were dividing Ibero-American countries Monday at a summit in Portugal, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said.

.......

Spain also called for a "wide national agreement" in the Central American country to end the crisis.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe meanwhile announced that his country would recognize the election result.

The elections had been "democratic," with a high turnout and without fraud, Uribe told Colombian media.

"We trust the new government will step up all efforts to definitively overcome the difficult situation" in Honduras, he said.

......

[L. Coyote]

25. EU does not regard Honduran elections as "normal"

EU does not regard Honduran elections as "normal"
Dec 3, 2009, 11:44 GMT - http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1516801.php/EU-does-not-regard-Honduran-elections-as-normal


Madrid - The European Union does not regard this week's elections in Honduras as 'normal' - but wants to find 'a political solution' for the crisis in the Central American country, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Thursday.

Moratinos, whose country will take over the rotating EU presidency on January 1, said the EU had agreed on the basis for a common position on Honduras which will be finalized by foreign ministers in Brussels next week.

'A consensus has already been reached on a declaration in the sense that the elections proceeded peacefully, but in exceptional circumstances,' Moratinos said at a joint press conference with the EU's new foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The declaration would say that 'they were not normal elections, but with a will to seek a political solution in the future,' Moratinos said.

The EU was due to decide whether to recognize the victory of conservative candidate Porfirio Lobo.

...................

[L. Coyote]

26. Election Fray in Honduras Human rights violations, voter turnout ....

Election Fray in Honduras
Human rights violations, voter turnout questions stain effort to elect legitimate post-Zelaya president.
By Jeremy Kryt - December 3, 2009 - http://inthesetimes.com/article/5262/election_fray_in_honduras


TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—The de facto government in Honduras named Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo to be the new Honduras’ new head of state Sunday, after a controversial election that many local and international human rights experts had denounced as constitutionally illegal. The result of the ballot vote also remains unrecognized by most nations of the world.

“There’s no way you can have free and fair elections when there’s this kind of oppression going on,” said Karen Spring, who was in the capital of Tegucigalpa to monitor elections for Rights Action, a Connecticut-based human rights organization. “Democracy is a process. But in Honduras there’s been martial law for months… And all that time people were being shot and killed and beaten.”

But the newly-minted president seems confident he can bring peace to a fractured nation.

“This will be a government of unity and reconciliation,” Lobo said during his victory speech Sunday night, speaking at a ballroom of a downtown hotel. “These elections have shown the world that democracy exists in Honduras,” said the wealthy rancher, who also has strong ties to the lucrative Honduran timber industry.

The crowd at Lobo’s victory reception Sunday night was small but frenzied. His supporters sang along with a quasi-religious fervor to Lobo’s campaign theme songs, while they waited for the far-right political veteran to appear. Large screens mounted above the crowd showed a steady montage of puppies, men on horseback, and various blue-collar laborers happily going about their work. .........

..............

[L. Coyote]

27. EDITORIAL Coup ‘election’ flops

EDITORIAL
Coup ‘election’ flops
Published Dec 2, 2009 3:24 PM -


Even the most polished spinmasters, whose job is to convince the public that fantasy is reality and the tail wags the dog, are having a hard time with this one. The Honduran “election” of Nov. 29 was a dismal flop both for the oligarchy’s coup makers and for the U.S. politicos behind them.

The Honduran resistance, which has been bringing vigorous demonstrations into the streets on a daily basis since the kidnapping and ouster of elected President Manuel Zelaya this summer, reports there was the highest abstention rate in that country’s history: from 65 percent to 70 percent of the electorate didn’t vote. This non-election was a victory for those who refused to legitimize an illegitimate regime.

Throughout Latin America and much of the rest of the world, the coup in Honduras is seen as a dangerous example of what the imperial strategists are plotting for the region. As one country after another votes in leftist parties—the latest example is Uruguay, where a former guerrilla leader who spent 14 years in prison was just elected president—the U.S. is expanding its military bases in the region. It may still try to cover its dirty deeds with democratic phrase-mongering, but actions speak louder than words.

In Honduras, the military deposed the elected president when he tried to raise the minimum wage and carry out other reforms. They put in as the new head of state a rightist committed to continuing the rule of a tiny oligarchy ...................

[L. Coyote]

28. Did elections legitimize coup?

Did elections legitimize coup?
Gilda Silvestrucci - 12/3/2009 - http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6005

...............

“Democracy didn´t win here,” said Zelaya, ............

While the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said there was 61 percent participation, the National Front against the Coup said 63 percent abstained from the vote.

The group accused the electoral board of doctoring the figures since the first results were supposed to be released at 7 p.m., but were released, instead, at 11 p.m., which the board blamed on technical problems.

“It´s evident that the technical problem reported by the Tribunal was caused intentionally to increase the voter turnout numbers,” said lawmaker and member of the resistance group Tomás Andino.

“We don´t believe that with such few people who went to the polling centers that there were close to 3 million votes, as the Tribunal is trying to tell us,” he said. “What they´re doing is try not to declare the process a failure.”

He estimated that voter turnout was, at most, 35 percent. .....................

[L. Coyote]

29. New LATEST threads: U.S. Urges Support of Neighbors for New Leader

Dec-05-09 - Honduras: U.S. Urges Support of Neighbors for New Leader
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4172057

Dec-02-09 - Honduras Congress rejects Zelaya's reinstatement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4168840

[Judi Lynn]

30. Honduras: The Obama Administration’s First Latin American Waterloo

Obama's First Latin American Waterloo
Monday, 7 December 2009, 10:03 am
Press Release: Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Honduras: The Obama Administration’s First Latin American Waterloo

by COHA Director Larry Birns

- The making of a failed policy in a diplomatic process that proved to be painfully unprofessional
- Ineptitude and chaos on Hillary Clinton’s watch

The staging of the Honduran presidential election on November 29 was meant to represent a satisfactory resolution of the Honduran crisis in Washington’s thinking. But to short-sighted U.S. policymakers, the magnitude and prohibitive costs of their maladroit strategy are being left out of the equation. Meanwhile, what seems to be a solution for Washington actually lives on as a profound problem for much of the rest of the hemisphere, as well as for long-term ties with such major regional actors as Brazil, Argentina, and the Venezuelan-led ALBA nations. These latter nations, at least for now, refuse to accept the validity of what they see as a tainted strategy unfolding in Honduras. Their split with the U.S., when it comes to Washington’s apparent decision to recognize the integrity of the November 29 presidential ballot and the December 2 vote in the Honduran Congress to recognize an anti-Zelaya status quo, is definitive. Moreover, what could have been looked back upon as a stunning victory for U.S. diplomacy was, in a matter of days, transformed into a staggering defeat.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0912/S00088.htm

[Judi Lynn]

33. Honduran president-elect to travel oversea to mend ties

Honduran president-elect to travel oversea to mend ties
2009-12-08 14:13 BJT

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Honduran president-elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa said on Monday that he will travel to Costa Rica and Dominican Republic to help "normalize" ties with countries in Central America.

"Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going to Costa Rica and on Thursday we are traveling to Dominican Republic," he told the press.

Lobo said that in Costa Rica, he and his delegation will meet with President Oscar Arias, describing Arias as a man with rich experience who will help Honduras open the door at international stage.

In Dominican Republic they will meet with Dominican President Leonel Fernandez.

Lobo also said that Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli will arrive in Honduran capital Tegucigalpa on Wednesday.

The flurry of diplomacy came when many countries neither recognized the current de facto government nor Lobo's triumph in the controversial election, as they consider the presidential race illegal.

More:
http://english.cctv.com/20091208/102875.shtml