After the primary election in Honduras on Sunday, March 9, the country’s three major political parties elected presidential candidates ahead of the November 30 election.
The three presidential candidates are Rixi Moncada, who ruled the left-wing Liberal and Reconstruction Party, Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party and Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party. candidate Received According to a Honduran newspaper El Heraldo.
This year’s primary election faces professional logistics challenge. Many polling stations have provided significant delays due to unequal election materials, some of which lasted 16 hours, according to CNN. The long queue began to form earlier in the day, with delays in the arrival of the ballot box and many understaffed.
At some polling stations, the ballot box still has not arrived Nine hours News Agency EFE reported that the election should have begun.
Chairman of the National Election Commission (CNE), National Representative of the Kuomintang Cossette López explain On Sunday, “we’re not looking for the culprit, but for the solution,” then added that the 10 trucks that were supposed to allocate the election resources were replaced by 90 buses at the last minute.
A Honduran woman waited for more than three hours to vote near Miraphres claim“The government wants to steal elections from us. The military should also blame them because they fail to distribute the ballot boxes correctly.”
Two days after the primary election, the results remain unclear and the delays continue. El Heraldo CNE employees are still not allowed to receive the first of 24,858 ballot boxes as the Public Department is still investigating the cause of the delay.
The ballot box was shipped to the bus drivers in Infop (National Vocational Training Institute), where the vote count was conducted, staying in their vehicles for two days as they waited for CNE workers to get the green light to collect the ballot box.
A bus driver responsible for transporting ballot boxes from the polling station to Infop told El Heraldo: “It’s already Tuesday; we’ve been waiting for the ballot box on the bus for two days and we haven’t delivered it yet.”
The delays have sparked controversy among politicians, with NPC leader Tomás Zambrano accusing the incumbent government and armed forces of boycotting the election. he claim“It’s not accidental; it’s part of a strategic plan to empower the process.” This means the left-wing government works with the armed forces.
Moncada has always been defendant Orchestrated by Nasralla. The centrist candidate described Moncada as “the culprit that happened in the election process”, claiming that she “directed the armed forces” and “does everything she can to delay the process”.
Moncada Rejected Such accusation says: “I have always strictly respected the exercise of public office”, adding that according to the Honduran newspaper Tiempo. Moncada added that it is CNE’s responsibility to have the courage to explain to Hondurans what happened with the 1.4% ballot box that they cannot deliver in time.”
The armed forces also deny any misconduct, Chief of Staff explain“If there is a fraud attempt, it is the purpose of the prosecutor’s office.” He added that the military has no political interest and its role is simply to “make sure the election is clean, transparent and reliable.”
Worries about corruption are nothing new to Honduran politics. September 2024, video Surfaces show that incumbent President Xiomara Castro’s brother-in-law Carlos Zelaya met with top drug traffickers to discuss Castro’s financial contributions in 2013 presidential election. Zelaya confirmed he was in the meeting, but he denied that he or the campaign had received money from traffickers.
Honduras is Ranking In Transparent International’s 2024 Corruption Ideas Index, 154 out of 180 were scored 22/100.
