Honduran voters have given the ruling National Party four more years in the presidency even though crime worsened, and poverty and unemployment increased in the poor nation under outgoing Honduran President Porfirio Lobo.
Juan Orlando Hernandez, 45, the party’s candidate who campaigned on a law-and-order platform, has all but won the hotly contested presidential race, electoral authorities said late on Monday in declaring his lead “irreversible.”
Even before the announcement, his main competitor, Xiomara Castro, had challenged the official returns and claimed victory for herself. Her husband, former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a 2009 coup, said they would not accept the results.
With about 68 percent of the votes counted from Sunday’s election, Hernandez had 34 percent, to 29 percent for Castro, in an eight-candidate field.
“It’s not the final result, but it’s an irreversible trend,” tribunal spokeswoman Lourdes Rosales said.
Hernandez will likely face a divided congress, whose 128 members were also elected on Sunday. As a result, the political situation is unlikely to change dramatically in this failing state of 8.5 million people, which is home to the world’s highest homicide rate.
It has been a focal point for US drug enforcement efforts as the transit point for much of the South American cocaine heading to the US.
More than half of the country lives in poverty and the number of people working for less than the minimum wage of US$350 a month has grown from 28 percent in 2008 to 43 percent.
Castro’s candidacy was viewed as an attempt by Zelaya to make a comeback after his term was cut short by a coup that continues to contribute to Honduras’ political instability.
After the electoral court’s declaration, neither Castro nor Zelaya gave an immediate comment and the streets were calm.
Hernandez and Castro had entered the election neck-and-neck in opinion polls, and there were fears a disputed vote could bring protests and more instability. International observers, including US Ambassador Lisa Kubiske, had congratulated Hondurans on a peaceful vote with high turnout, and said the vote and the count appeared clean.
Castro, 54, led the race for months, portraying herself as the candidate for change and promising constitutional reform that would make the country more equitable.
However, in the closing weeks Hernandez, 45, wiped out her lead as he promised to do “whatever I have to” in fighting crime in a country where much of the cities are controlled by gangs and the outlying remote areas are held by drug runners.
As president of congress, Hernandez pushed through legislation creating a military police force to patrol the most difficult areas of the major cities instead of the National Police, a force penetrated by corruption and often accused of extrajudicial killings.
Hernandez, a lawyer and reserve army lieutenant who studied law at New York University, was first elected to congress in 1997 and became the body’s president in 2010.
Opponents accuse him of using the position to consolidate his power over other branches, including the judiciary.
He said that Honduras needs an anti-drug strategy with the US that is more effective.
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