Counting continues in the contested Sunday vote in Honduras, but both candidates have already claimed victory, and police are out in force in Tegcuigalps to crack down against protesters.
Polls in the last few days before the vote showed a substantial lead for TV personality Salvador Nasralla over incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez. After a glitchy voting process, Hernandez is now claimed to have a narrow lead.
That and a slow counting process has Nasralla accusing the government of trying to steal his election win, and he’s been encouraging supporters into the streets, while the police are eagerly attacking them.
The US has supported Hernandez throughout the process, and his expected defeat was being reported as a US failure. The OAS, by contrast, just wants everyone to accept the election as credible, no matter how crooked it appears, in the hopes of avoiding unrest.
Honduras is still recovering from a 2009 military coup, in which the US was accused of a substantial role, and anything that gives the appearance of a rigged election this time around is likely to be another major blow for the nation’s stability.
Antiwar.com’s Justin Raimondo has written recently about the involvement of then-Secretary State Hillary Clinton in supporting the Honduran junta and undermining civilian rule in the tiny central American nation.
Zelaya was ousted in a coup for raising the question of revising the constitution including term limits
So now a right wing government what their candidate re-elected.