My on-the-ground view of the Honduran elections

The pinky greeting of Election Day

I went to three polling places on Sunday in La Ceiba (the third largest city in Honduras) and one in El Porvenir (a smaller town) in the department of Atlantida. The polling places were crowded with hardly any police or military in sight. I was surprised at the latter because I was worried they would be needed for security. However, the atmosphere was fiesta-like: happy people, kids playing, mothers carrying babies, many people lingering to talk to their neighbors. I also saw more traffic than usual on a Sunday, with many cars waving the flags of Honduras and/or the political parties. Some polling places had food stands set up outside, adding to the festival atmosphere.

Below are some photos of what we saw during the day including the view from where we ate lunch (just to make you jealous). We don't have a car, so we were at the mercy of others to get around. Also, in a blogger's worst dreams, first all three sets of my camera batteries went dead, then my computer was unable to access the internet, then my mouse quit working, and all this was after we resolved my laptop keyboard death! What stress! I borrowed a camera, but as you will see about half-way through the pics, I didn't have a good grasp on how to use it.

Please read the rest of my story, What I saw at the Honduran elections, at Pajamas Media.


I'll be blogging this afternoon about the Honduran Congress vote on whether or not to reinstate Manuel Zelaya. The Congressional session will begin in minutes and is being broadcast live.

Honduran election observer reports

Socializing on election day

Friends Of Honduras
PO Box 65676
Washington, DC 20035


Statement on the National Elections in Honduras
November 29, 2009

The Friends Of Honduras participated as International Observers in the Honduran national elections held on November 29. Our group is largely comprised of ex-patriots living in Honduras. We provided 79 observers of 7 different nationalities (Colombian, Canadian, Dutch, Irish, Italian, UK, and USA). We were the largest single group participating as International Observers. While all International Observers offer critical services, our group provides the extra benefit of living in or nearby the communities that we observed. We were able to reach communities that had never had International Observers before. We had observers at virtually every polling place in the Bay Islands, Balfate, Comayagua, Copan Ruinas, La Ceiba, San Pedro Sula, and Tegucigalpa. Our group alone observed in nearly 50 different polling locations with several hundred polling stations.

We had a large concentration of observers in the Bay Islands. We were able to have observers at every polling place on the island of Roatan (except one with a washed out road), Utila, and Santa Helena. Virtually all of those polling places had observers from before they opened until the polls closed and the ballots were all counted. On the Bay Islands, we literally observed every step in the process from the military delivering the ballot boxes at 4:30AM to them being collected at midnight.

All of our members reported similar observations that the election process in Honduras is VERY transparent and fair. There are multiple layers of verification to ensure that only the properly registered person voted and that the defined electoral process is followed to the letter. The polling places were accessible to all citizens. The military and police provided security but were not a hindrance to the process. They were in fact very helpful, professional, and courteous. The people working the polling stations were well trained and committed to having a fair and clean election. The general demeanor of the people at all the polling places was one of happiness. There was a sense of pride among the voters as well as those working the polling stations.

We commend the TSE for conducting such a well-run election process. We appreciated the opportunity to assist them. These elections should be recognized as being free, fair and transparent.

Mitch Cummins

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The National Democratic Institute issued their preliminary report.

Ray Walser gives his report at The Corner of the National Review.

I'll have a report on my observations and some photos later.

Squawk, squawk from the OAS

Honduran dicho:
He who talks much about what he knows,
knows little about what he says.

Can I speak frankly here? These OAS people are just fools. Apparently anyone can claim anything and the OAS will issue a statement strongly condemning it. No evidence is needed. It doesn't even have to have occurred yet. Not even any common sense is needed − just call yourself a journalist or a human rights supporter and make any sort of wild claim and the OAS will jump right on their press release condemning Honduras. Chávez has them trained better than my chihuahuas but they both can be called lap dogs.

OAS press release, November 26, 2009

The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression expresses its deepest concern regarding the attacks against freedom of expression registered in Honduras in the last few days, particularly the constant interruptions and interferences to the broadcasting signal of TV Channel 36 and the explosion in the building of Channel 10.

According to information received by the Special Rapporteurship, in the last few days the broadcast signal of Channel 36 has been interrupted several times, impeding it from broadcasting normally. Also, the director of Channel 36, Esdras Amado López, reported to the Special Rapporteurship that he has received information according to which the TV channel’s installations could be controlled by the military on Sunday, November 29 during the election, and that the channel’s announcers could be temporarily detained by security forces to prevent them from working that day.

The Special Rapporteurship received information that in the early hours of November 25, an explosive detonated in the installations of Channel 10. The explosion caused damages to the building, but no injuries were reported.

The Special Rapporteurship expresses its special concern regarding interference of broadcasts by media critical of the de facto government, as well as the repeated attacks against private media .... blah, blah, blah.

On the evening of November 24, evil Esdras Amado López and his screeching sidekick told viewers that they were shutting down Canal 36 as a protest and they didn't know when they would return. (They returned on either election day, or November 30 − I did not have internet access so I'm not sure.) I heard them say that. I wrote about it on November 25. Did I or did I not write, "My second thought was that it was a ploy to get the human rights groups to complain."? You read it here. (If you didn't, please do.)

Am I the only one who saw and heard them say that? Do they have any other viewers left?

As far as repeated attacks against private media − uh, any idiot knows that those attacks were by the Resistance. How is it that the OAS manages to twist attacks against pro-government media as the fault of the government? Shouldn't that have been a demand against Zelaya to control his attack dogs?

Okay, here is one for you: I, a blogger with a human right to freedom of thought and expression, have received information that Mel Zelaya could interfere with my internet connection tomorrow and he could be sneaking out of the embassy at night and he could be coming to strangle me. The other day when I had a dropped call, it could have been someone tapping my phone line.

I will be waiting for the OAS 'strong condemnation' .... don't I at least deserve a 'special concern'?

Apparently these people have no regard for how this type of thing minimizes real human rights violations and real free speech issues, like, for example, in, uh, let me think here ... Venezuela? ... Cuba? ... Iran?