Competing Candidates Claim Victory in Honduras Presidential Election · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Juan Orlando Hernández from the ruling conservative National Party is currently leading the presidential vote in Honduras, according to results released by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). But his main rival, left-wing LIBRE party candidate Xiomara Castro, has also claimed victory and her party has declared that they don't recognize the results released by the TSE.
Xiomara Castro is the wife of former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup in June 2009.
Twitter users shared reactions and reports throughout Sunday, November 24, with the hashtags #HondurasDecide (Honduras decides), #EleccionesHonduras2013 (Honduras 2013 elections), #HondurasVota (Honduras votes) and #Honduras, among others:
#Honduras voters in Las Delicias barrio in Tegucigalpa pic.twitter.com/1u9uFGnAdH
— Will Grant (@will__grant) November 24, 2013
Freelance writer and consultant Boz from Bloggings by boz explained that both parties quoted exit polls that claimed they had won the presidential election.
Both Libre and National Parties are quietly passing around exit poll data showing they won. Prediction: At least one of them is wrong.
— boz (@bloggingsbyboz) November 24, 2013
Xiomara Castro claimed her victory on Sunday night. She tweeted:
Con los resultados que he recibido de boca de urna de todo el país, puedo decirles: Soy la Presidenta de #Honduras.
— Xiomara Castro (@XiomaraCastroZ) November 25, 2013
With the exit poll results that I have received from around the country, I can tell you: I am the president of Honduras.
But the early results released by the TSE placed National Party candidate Juan Orlando Hernández in the lead:
RT @americahn Primeros resultados del @tsehonduras pic.twitter.com/75dmngO4FN National Party leads early results in #Honduras
— David Agren (@el_reportero) November 25, 2013
First results from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
Juan Orlando Hernández declared his victory soon after these early results:
¡Gracias Dios mio y gracias pueblo hondureño por este triunfo! pic.twitter.com/iucVwtM7du
— Juan Orlando H. (@JuanOrlandoH) November 25, 2013
Thank you God and thank you Honduran people for this victory!
Titulares: Insólito #Honduras estrena dos presidentes, ambos celebran la victoria #eleccioneshonduras #HondurasDecide #HondurasVota
— Libertas (@Tekandi) November 25, 2013
Headlines: Unbelievable, Honduras debuts two presidents, both celebrate victory.
Later that night, the bloggers behind Honduras Culture and Politics shared the last TSE results of the day, which still had Juan Orlando Hernández winning the election:
#Honduras TSE: 54% prelim counts with estimated 61% voter participation: Partido Nacional 34.27% LIBRE 28.67%: no more updates tonight
— Honduras Cult Politi (@HondurasCultPol) November 25, 2013
Xiomara Castro's LIBRE party did not recognize these results, as human rights and anti-mining activist Karen Spring explained:
LIBRE does not recognize announced results bc of irregularities with the scrutiny of the actas or vote tallies #EleccionesHonduras2013
— Karen Spring (@springkj) November 25, 2013
Radio Globo, a radio station known for its opposition to the coup in 2009, had reported earlier that Xiomara Castro was the winner of Sunday's election:
Radio Globo #Honduras: ¨No les mentimos en el Golpe de Estado. No les mentimos ahora. @XiomaraCastroZ está ganando en todo el país¨
— Rolando Segura (@rolandoteleSUR) November 25, 2013
Radio Globo Honduras: “We didn't lie during the coup. We won't lie to you now. Xiomara Castro is winning around the country.”
Why LIBRE thinks it won in #Honduras: totals from each polling place transmitted to parties as well as TSE; Radio Globo broadcasting them
— Honduras Cult Politi (@HondurasCultPol) November 25, 2013
Hard to describe what's happening. RadioGlobo refusing to accept preliminary results, calling everyone 2 defend LIBRE victory.
— Karen Spring (@springkj) November 25, 2013
Meanwhile, US ambassador in Honduras, Lisa Kubiske, declared:
Ha sido un “proceso transparente y un proceso regular” dice la embajadora de los estados Unidos en tegucigalpa para las #eleccioneshonduras
— albertoarce (@alberarce) November 25, 2013
It has been a “transparent and regular process” the ambassador of the United States in Tegucigalpa declared regarding the Honduran elections.
Laura Raymond from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) questioned the ambassador's statements:
What business does the US Ambassador have evaluating such a contested election right now? What criteria did she use? What process? #Shame
— Laura Raymond (@laurajraymond) November 25, 2013
CCR released a statement on Monday:
Yesterday’s election in Honduras and subsequent statements by the U.S. Ambassador characterizing the election as “transparent” and accompanied by only few acts of violence are reminiscent of the 2009 election, where the U.S. rushed to validate and help push forward a process as it was being contested by Honduran civil society. There must be an opportunity to do a full and accurate count and fully investigate reports of irregularities and intimidation and threats by authorities.
Meanwhile, on Twitter some are talking about electoral fraud:
Huele a fraude #EleccionesHonduras2013. Crisis política c 2 candidat@s auto proclamad@s y tercer candidato no reconoce resultado #TSE
— Freya Rojo (@FreyaRojo) November 25, 2013
It smells like fraud. Political crisis with 2 self-proclaimed candidates and a third candidate not recognizing TSE results.
And user Horacio Torres referred to the coup that overthrew Zelaya:
Si dieron con total impunidad un golpe de estado, por qué no iban a ser capaces de organizar un fraude #NoAlFraudeEnHonduras
— Horacio Torres ✌ (@Horacio246) November 25, 2013
If they carried out a coup with complete impunity, why would they not be able to organize a fraud?
The Americas Blog has been keeping a live blog where they share violations of electoral regulations and other inconsistencies.
Furthermore, the Honduras Solidarity Network released a report by the ‘Council Analyzing Human Rights Violations in the Honduran Electoral Process’ which says that the elections were “taking place in an atmosphere of suspicion.”
The report lists the information the Council shared with human rights lawyer Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas and Judge Baltazar Garzon, including reports of “intimidation against members of the voting tables […] the buying and selling of votes and credentials” and “irregularities in the electoral registry.”
The Council added:
We remind the people of Honduras that we are not alone, for we are being accompanied by hundreds of international defenders of human rights here in our country, who are taking note of the injustices and violations of basic rights, so that they can submit timely reports to their respective countries.
To conclude, we reaffirm our demand that human rights are respected, in particular the right to life , integrity, and freedom, rights which are systematically violated in this country.
Boz from Bloggings by boz posted “Five points on the Honduran elections“, where, among other things, he discusses the slow vote count:
4) Could the vote count be any slower? While I think the TSE vote counting process will eventually deliver an accurate result, it's also way too slow for the age of Twitter. The delay in counting the vote is partially why both leading candidates jumped the gun in declaring themselves president. It's why two of the candidates are now claiming fraud and manipulation. This is something that must be fixed by the next election. There is no reason that at 7AM the morning after the election, only about half the votes have been counted.
Boz concludes:
5) It's clear the presidential winner will obtain less than 40% of the vote and potentially under 33%. The Congress is going to be far more plural and more divided. No candidate or party has a significant mandate. Honduras's institutions should try to reflect that divided country, yet should also focus on being productive, not continuing to fight the political battles of the election. That's idealistic of me. It's much more likely that Honduras is going to see some protests.
Stay tuned for more updates on this contested election.