The last time the Honduran presidential elections were so close and tension was this high, in 2017, election night ended with accusations of fraud, violent demonstrations and a curfew imposed by the army, which did not prevent more than 20 people from dying. The fear is that the scenario could repeat itself this Sunday, November 30th. And Donald Trump’s interference only made things even more complicated.
More than 6.3 million voters are registered to vote in the general elections, where in addition to the president, who is chosen by a simple majority without the right to a second round, the 128 deputies to the National Congress (and their respective substitutes), the 20 deputies of the Central American Parliament, the country’s 298 mayors and the 2168 councilors are elected.
In the race to succeed Xiomara Castro, the former first lady who was the first woman to assume the presidency of Honduras and cannot run for a second term, there are five candidates. But the focus is on just three: Rixi Moncada, the former Finance Minister chosen by the president herself to lead the Liberdade e Refundação (or Livre) candidacy; conservative Nasry Asfura, the National Party, which stood out as mayor of the capital and received the support of North American President Donald Trump; and former television presenter and former vice president of Xiomara Castro, Salvador Nasrallawho is running for the fourth time, now for the Liberal Party (center).
The three are in a technical tie in unreliable polls.
Trump’s entry into the game only made the situation more tense. In a long message on social media, published last Wednesday, the American president said that “democracy is at stake” in the Honduran elections, echoing an opposition accusation that a possible victory by Rixi Moncada will place Honduras on the side of the “narco-terrorists” of Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro and the allies of Cuba and Nicaragua.