Honduras’ ruling right-wing party acknowledged defeat in Sunday’s presidential election on Tuesday, as left-wing candidate Siomara Castro is 20 percentage points ahead of its rival so far, with more than half the results. votes have been counted.
“We wish success to those who won the election,” Nationalist Central Committee (PN) Secretary-General Kilvet Bertrand told Radio América.
The PN will continue to “work hard in the opposition” to “take care” of democracy, he continued. “You can see the climate of peace and calm in the country, even though the National Party was not elected to the government,” he added.
Based on the partial results, with 52.07% of the ballots counted, Ms. Castro, 62, the candidate of the Party for Freedom and Re-establishment (LIBRE), receives 53.49% of the votes, is in distance in front of the National Party candidate, Nasri Asfouras (33.98%).
The latter, the mayor of the capital, is expected to speak in the next few hours, according to Mr. Bertrand. On election night, he vowed to respect the outcome of the process, while earlier on Sunday he demanded that “not a drop of blood be shed”.
Honduras are still waiting for the final results of the elections. After the closing of the polls, the counting is done at a slow pace.
Mrs. Castro is going to become the first woman to assume the presidency of the Central American country.
The Electoral Commission (CNE) explained that many ballots had to be passed to the databases, while the first half had reached digital form directly.
As of Sunday night, Siomara Castro, the wife of former President Manuel Selaya, who was overthrown in the 2009 military coup, said she was the winner. The former first lady promised to form a “reconciliation government”.
“Polarization”
In the small Central American state of about 10 million people, plagued by gang violence and poverty, turnout reached a “historic” level, exceeding 60%, according to CNE.
In a preliminary announcement on Tuesday, the European Union observer mission stressed that “election day was generally calm and the results were broadcast without incident so far”.
“At the same time, the pre-election period has been marked by unprecedented levels of political violence and strong polarization,” the EU mission added.
“At least six mayors, candidates and activists were assassinated in the weeks leading up to the election,” the head of the mission, Zeliana Zovko, told a news conference on Tuesday.
Ms. Castro’s looming victory will end the National Party’s twelve years of monarchy. He will succeed President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is ending his second term amid suspicions of involvement in drug trafficking.
In 2013, Hernτεςndez narrowly defeated Siomara Castro before revising the Constitution to run for a second term in 2017. then in the country.
Ms. Castro will take over the government of a country that is bleeding from the violence of drug-trafficking gangs and is struggling to recover from the two cyclones that hit it in 2020 and the pandemic of the new coronavirus. 59% of the population lives in poverty.
Every year, tens of thousands of Hondurans try to follow the one million of their compatriots who have immigrated, the vast majority to the United States.
Unemployment almost doubled in one year, from 5.7% in 2019 to 10.9% in 2020, when the pandemic struck.
With a homicide rate of 37.6 per 100,000 inhabitants by 2020, Honduras is also one of the most violent countries on the planet, excluding war zones.
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