Honduras has made considerable progress in building its democratic institutions since its transition from military rule in 1980, holding seven consecutive democratic elections since 1981. An active civil society has played an important role in strengthening oversight of the electoral process and other areas of governance. Nonetheless, accusations of irregularities have surrounded Honduran elections, which have been dominated by two of the country’s five parties — the National Party (Partido Nacional, PN) and the Liberal Party (Partido Liberal, PL). The 2005 presidential election highlighted shortcomings of the Honduran electoral system, particularly in the transmission of election results.
Electoral reforms passed in 2007 aim to address some of these issues, but also bring new challenges — such as decentralizing the vote count to the municipal and departmental levels.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (Tribunal Supremo Electoral, TSE) must now oversee the implementation of electoral reforms enacted in 2007 by the Honduran Congress, which mandate a return to a decentralized vote count that takes place at the municipal and departmental levels. Honduran analysts also note that the two major parties’ perceived control over the selection and training of poll workers raises concerns about their ability to be impartial on Election Day. These issues, combined with an outdated voter registry and delays in disbursing the funds for elections, have the potential to create conditions for perceived irregularities in the 2009 general elections.
In response to these challenges, the Institute is working to safeguard the integrity of the 2009 election process by helping nonpartisan, independent Honduran civic organizations to observe the 2008 primary elections, as well as the pre-electoral, voting and counting process in the 2009 general elections.
Nonpartisan Domestic Election Monitoring
NDI is working with nonpartisan Honduran election observation groups to promote their capacity to monitor pre-election and election-day conditions in the areas of decision-making, division of labor, project planning and outreach strategies.
NDI provided assistance to a Honduran civic group to conduct a qualitative observation of the 2008 primary elections. The group fielded observers to monitor polling stations in 16 departments across the country.
NDI is assisting a consortium of Honduran civic groups to recruit and train a national network of nonpartisan domestic observer volunteers by sharing international best practices and providing observation methodologies. The Honduran observers will monitor the quality of the November 2009 general election process and will also conduct a parallel vote tabulation (PVT or “quick count”) during the 2009 elections using a statistically random sample of polling station results.
Contact Information
For more information about these programs, use our contact form or contact:
Guatemala City
Eduardo Núñez, Resident Director
+502 2385 3344
Washington, D.C.
Sara Barker, Program Officer
(202) 728-5618
Alez Kerchner, Senior Program Assistant
(202) 728-6310
