Opposition leader wins election in Honduras: Poll

Opposition leader wins election in Honduras: Poll

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Honduran opposition Liberal Party leader Manuel Zelaya won Sunday's presidential election with 50.6 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll published by local media.

Zelaya's supporters have begun to celebrate the victory at the campaign headquarters after hearing the result of the exit poll of 120,000 voters.

Porfirio Lobo, candidate of the governing National Party, got 44.3 percent of the vote, as the poll showed.

About 3.9 million Honduran voters cast their ballots at 5,312 polling stations throughout the country from 6 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

<snip>

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/28/content_3845302.htm

While it sounds good, let us remember that Somoza's party in Nicaragua(which once again leads the U.S. colonial administration there)is also called the Liberals.

(On another note, I rather enjoy the fact that your link is from Xinhua, the Chinese state news service. There is something intrinsically droll about learning election results in a report from a state news organ whose state doesn't HAVE elections.)

There's really no lesser of two evils in Honduras.

victory?

As in most other Latin American countries, Honduras has had a corrupt bipartisan-in-name-only system. In most countries this is now changing (Chávez, Kirchner, etc) but this has yet to happen in Honduras.

I was just wondering why you started a thread on this, I guess.

DU'ers have tried to be aware of political events in this hemisphere since years ago. The fact you don't approve won't have much impact.

I was just asking what the relevance was to him. It's not about my approval or disapproval.

Elections results are usually important, even if the policies of the parties are similar.

Thanks. I really wasn't attacking you, hope you understand that.
Just wondering what your interest was. Sorry if I caused offense.

Gee, they work in third world nations just swell, and when disputed, we cry foul, but when it happens here, we cry - ohh the exit polls were wrong. FU M$M!

Opposition set for surprise Honduras poll win
Sun Nov 27, 2005 7:59 PM ET
By Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Gustavo Palencia

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Hondurans appeared to have confounded expectations on Sunday by electing a new president who wants to fight rampant gang violence with more police rather than bringing back the death penalty.

Two TV exit polls showed a clear advantage for opposition Liberal Party candidate Manuel Zelaya over his ruling National Party rival Porfirio Lobo, an advocate of reviving capital punishment who had led in pre-election surveys.

Clamping down on tattooed youth gang members known as "maras," who are behind a wave of beheadings, eye gougings, rapes and other violence, was the key election issue in this poor Central American nation.

Zelaya, 53, won 51 percent of the vote, ahead of Lobo on 44 percent, according to an exit poll by the Televicentro TV station.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-11-28T005956Z_01_N27214633_RTRIDST_0_HONDURAS-ELECTIONS-UPDATE-1-PICTURE.XML

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Thanks for the original article, arcos. Of course other articles confirm it.

We say "bye bye" to Maduro.

The two main parties in Honduras are right wing, and they are both responsible for neoliberal policies and multiple human rights violations over the decades.

Of course it is positive he's against the death penalty, but from what I've read, that was basically the most important difference between the two candidates. We can probably expect a few pictures of Zelaya at the White House soon.

:hi:

It does sound as if he has some other goals which might possibly help, however, if implemented. From an Associated Press article, ll-27:

.....Honduras abolished the death penalty in 1937.

Zelaya, a former congressman and bank director, insists the shortest road to prosperity for a country with a 70 percent poverty rate is to eliminate corruption, which he claims is rife in the National Party-ruled government and the private sector.

Zelaya has proposed several measures to give citizens more power, including a transparency law and a civil assembly to monitor the government. He also promises to support life imprisonment for hard core criminals, including gang members. Honduran law does not allow life imprisonment, though judges have imposed sentences of up to 60 years for grave crimes.

Laura Pavon, a 25-year-old government worker from Tegucigalpa, said she supported Lobo Sosa because "he is going to bring more jobs and security to eliminate the gangs."

"The most important thing here is crime," she said. "The gangs go around terrorizing everybody, killing indiscriminately."

But Sara Lucy Arita, a 58-year-old Tegucigalpa businesswoman, said the only worthy candidate was Zelaya "because the Liberal Party represents the dispossessed."
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-honduras-elections,0,4605331.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

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I've heard, by the way, some of the gang members are actually people who used to be in the death squads during the truly evil times. I'll have to find out more about this.

It's funny reading they have no death penalty, when you also realize they had death squads! Hopefully that time will not be repeated.

What worries me is that Maduro was elected on an anti-corruption platform because people were tired of the Liberal Party. And now they are tired of the National Party and elect the Liberal Party again. Seems similar to what has happened to political parties all around the region... traditional parties became corrupt organizations with no ideological differences, and obviously with no one defending the people's interest.

Lots of other elections are coming though... they will be interesting and hopefully good results will come out of them.