Presidential in Honduras | The left-wing candidate ahead

(Tegucigalpa) Left-wing candidate Xiomara Castro takes advantage for Honduran presidency against outgoing right-wing president’s dolphin, in a country plagued by violence from drug traffickers, who have extended their corruption to the top state level.

Voter turnout was established at the “historic” level of 62%, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Sunday evening, announcing the first partial results.

With the votes of 16% of polling stations counted, Xiomara Castro, wife of former President Manuel Zelaya ousted in 2009 by a coup, obtained more than 53% of the vote, while her right-wing opponent Nasry Asfura n ‘gets that 34%.

The CNE, however, insisted on the provisional nature of these results and urged the candidates and voters to wait for the final results.

The threat of fraud and unrest hangs over the ballot and its count.

“They will try to provoke the people. We know there is despair, especially among those who have governed for 12 years, ”warned Mr.^me Castro after voting, when at least 31 people were killed during the campaign.

The candidate of the party in power has meanwhile committed to respect the result of the vote and asked that “not a drop of blood”.

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.

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.

Doubtful re-election

In 2013, Mr. Hernandez had beaten Xiomara Castro by a short head and then flouted 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 10 million inhabitants live below the poverty line, which the coronavirus pandemic has only accentuated.

Unemployment has almost doubled in one year, 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 most dangerous countries 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 to José Zelaya, 45 years old.

In the past two years, Parliament has dissolved an anti-corruption commission and adopted a new penal 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.