Well, there are no hanging chads, but the vote count in Honduras drags on and remains too close to call. Let me give a quick rundown of what's happened so far.
Pre-election. While a Gallup poll one month before the election showed a seven point lead for Lobo, some quiet polling the week before the election hinted that Zelaya may actually be leading.
Sunday, Election Day. Hondurans voted although there was a high abstention rate. That night, the head of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) said that the vote was not counted but that an exit poll of 1% of precincts showed Zelaya won 50%-44%. The head of the TSE called on the military to protect the president-elect.
Monday. Zelaya supporters celebrated and he announced international trips through Central America, Mexico and the US. However, Porfirio Lobo and the government refused to recognize the results, saying they would wait for all the votes to be counted. The international media portrayed Zelaya as the winner. The Honduran military was placed in a difficult situation as they are supposed to protect a president-elect, but must also obey the civilian leadership who do not recognize the president-elect. Thousands of government supporters took to the streets to protest.
Tuesday. The Honduran media criticized the slow vote count and the TSE. The government maintained its position that it would wait for all the votes to be counted. The OAS said it would remain in country until all the votes are counted. The OAS also criticized the TSE for being politicized. The US Embassy called on both sides to remain calm and met with both candidates. On Tuesday night, with 25% of the votes counted, Lobo held a surprising slight lead.
Wednesday. With 900,000 votes counted, Zelaya maintained a slight lead of just over 5,000 votes. The international media, which has mostly ignored the election, changed from a Zelaya win to "to close to call". El Heraldo has a map of the vote count here.
The counting continues... slowly. At this point, a Zelaya win will be tainted by the TSE politization and a Lobo win will probably bring protesters to the street. Let's just hope everyone remains calm and that the winner reaches out to the supporters of the loser and works to unite what is appearing to be a very divided political system.
When I first wrote about this election in July, I never guessed this election would provide any interesting drama for the region. Also see my posts from this past Friday and Monday.
UPDATE (Thursday, Noon):
With over 60% of the vote counted (about 1.3 million votes).
Zelaya 49.25%
Lobo 46.62%
Also see the BBC Mundo interviews with Zelaya and Lobo.
1 comments:
Thanks for your coverage of the election, since no one else seems to be interested.
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