Free Party presidential candidate Xiomara Castro greets her supporters after general elections, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021. Castro claimed victory, setting up a showdown with the National Party which said its candidate had won a vote that could end the conservative party’s 12 years in power. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro held a commanding lead early Monday as Hondurans appeared poised to remove the conservative National Party from power after 12 years of continuous rule.
Castro declared herself the winner despite orders from the National Electoral Council to political parties to await official results.
“We win! We win!” Castro, Honduras’ former first lady who is making her third presidential run, told cheering Liberty and Re-foundation party supporters when only a fraction of the ballots had been tallied. “Today the people have obtained justice. We have reversed authoritarianism.”
The National Party also quickly declared victory for its candidate, Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura, but the early returns were not promising.
By early Monday, Castro’s wide early lead was holding up. With 45% of the polling station tallies in, Castro had 53% of the votes and Asfura 33%, according to the National Electoral Council preliminary count. The council said turnout was more than 68%.
Thousands of people packed the capital’s Morazan Boulevard blowing car horns, waving the Libre party’s red flags and setting off fireworks. After midnight, the street continued to fill with Castro’s celebrating supporters.
Anticipating vandalism, some businesses along the boulevard had covered their windows with wood or metal sheeting, but the celebration appeared peaceful.
In 2017, after a protracted election filled with irregularities, protesters filled the streets and the government imposed a curfew. Three weeks later now-outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández was declared the winner despite the Organization of American States observation mission calling for an election re-do. At least 23 people were killed.
Late Sunday, Castro promised a permanent dialogue with the Honduran people and said beginning Monday she wanted to open conversations with all sectors of society and international organizations to seek solutions for the Central American country, which is recovering from two major hurricanes, troubled by gangs and enduring corruption and high poverty. Her husband, the former president who was ousted by a military coup in 2009, did not appear on stage with her, but her son and daughter were there.
Castro received a late surge of support when Salvador Nasralla, who lost to Hernández in 2017, ended his own candidacy and joined her alliance in October. The move took a three-way race that could have favored Asfura to just two.
Castro rode a wave of discontentment with the National Party’s rule. Hernández became a national embarrassment with U.S. federal prosecutors in New York accusing him of running a narco state and fueling his own political rise with drug money. Hernández has denied it all and has not been formally charged, but that could change once he leaves office.
In addition to a new president, Hondurans on Sunday chose a new congress, new representatives to the Central American Parliament and a bevy of local races.
The Organization of American States observation mission said in a statement late Sunday that the voting had appeared to be “appropriate and peaceful.”
Sunday’s turnout was 10 points above that in 2017.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/elections-honduras-tegucigalpa-ece5365f95420871e5fdf4986d0e1e83
