Honduras to hold general elections next November 30

teleSUR English

Interview from Honduras with university professor and executive secretary of the national civil service administration, Russel Garay.  Details: Jorge Gestoso, teleSUR Special Envoy.

Transcript

00:00We'll go to the polls on Sunday, number 30, to elect the next president and government.

00:04We'll have more information coming from Honduras itself with a special envoy, Jorge Justoso,

00:09who has the latest details as we are close to the voting day.

00:26We're here at Tegucigalpa in our studios that we are ready to start that reporting from tomorrow's presidential elections here in Honduras.

00:37And in order to put in perspective what to expect in that historic day,

00:45we have the presence, the privilege to have with us, Russell Garay.

00:50He is the director of strategy of Ritzi Moncada presidential campaign.

00:56Ritzi Moncada is the representative of the official party Libre.

01:01Russell, thanks very much for joining us.

01:04Thank you for having me.

01:05Russell, at midday, the candidate Ritzi Moncada was doing a presser, a press conference.

01:13Your reaction to what she said?

01:16Yeah, basically she made this denounce of how the oligarchs have been left without candidates.

01:23So now they are seeking the pardon of the former president, Juan Orlando Hernández, to fill this gap.

01:30And we believe that this is quite an insult to the country,

01:36that Trump's administration has been claiming that they are going to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández,

01:43even when he was convicted for 45 years of jail for trafficking at least 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S.

01:53So at this point, we are in a point of a strong contradiction in the country.

02:01But we believe that, as it happened in 2021, when we had the most voted election in history,

02:12and everyone voted against Juan Orlando Hernández, we will have the same effect in this election.

02:18And we have faith that tomorrow the polls are going to go for us, and we are going to be declared winners on Sunday.

02:29Polls open tomorrow around 6 in the morning, or 7 in the morning,

02:35and supposedly they are closing around 5, but if it's people doing the waiting things,

02:44they are going to let them the chance to finish to vote everybody.

02:48What about participation? Because the vote is not mandatory.

02:53What do you anticipate that could be, or what indication you have about the participation?

03:00Well, it's not mandatory, but we normally have a culture of democracy,

03:03and at least 60% of the people who are able to vote, vote.

03:09In 2021, we had an attorney around 67% of the people,

03:16and now we believe that it's going to be less,

03:19mostly because there is a lot of insurance and lack of trust in the institutions,

03:26and we believe that that maybe can leave some people without the desire to vote.

03:33But we still are working and moving all our political organizations to ensure that all the people who are able can go to the polls.

03:44What do you have identified as the position of the younger voters?

03:49Are they ready to participate in the political life, or like in other countries,

03:55they are pretty much reluctant to go and vote when there is no mandatory?

04:00Well, normally they will obtain voting, but in this particular issue,

04:08since we have the former president of Honduras who was convicted as a truck dealer,

04:14and he was in power until 2020.

04:19So there is a lot of people who are young at this point,

04:23but they still remember what happened during his tenure,

04:27and he was convicted for corrupting the institutions.

04:33He had ties to the army.

04:35He seeks to empower drug dealers all over the country.

04:41He also has a lot of corruption scandals regarding the health and the insurance of the people, the health care.

04:50So there is a lot of young people that don't know all the history of Honduras,

04:55but they still are able to recall all that happened in the former government,

05:01and we hope that they are going to vote.

05:04We have a strong pulse indicating that young people favor us,

05:09and we believe that they are going to vote tomorrow.

05:13Polls close, let's say it's at 5 o'clock or at the most at 6 p.m.,

05:19and next step is around 9 p.m.

05:21there has been announced that we're going to get the first preliminary votes.

05:27What do you think that is going to be the reaction of the three candidates?

05:32Because, for example, in that press conference,

05:35Ms. Rizzi Moncada said,

05:37I'm not going to accept the preliminary results.

05:41The only preliminary results that I do accept

05:43is the results of the people of Honduras and their vote.

05:51That's the only thing.

05:52Why do you think that is going to be that type of reaction?

05:57Is that what you think is going to happen?

05:59Yeah, we are completely sure that the preliminary results are going to be a trap for us

06:05because we have this leak audio of a member of the electoral council

06:14and a member of the national party who are plotting a trap in the preliminary results

06:21to appoint someone else as a winner.

06:24So we are not going to accept the preliminary result.

06:27No matter what is the result,

06:29we are going to wait for the final counting of all the ballots.

06:32And, for the other hand,

06:34we have other candidates who are willing to accept the preliminary results.

06:37But, since we have this endorsement of Trump,

06:41still it's going to be quite an issue

06:45because we have political interests

06:49and geopolitical interests in this election.

06:52So, I don't believe that we are going to have a winner in the night of the election.

06:57There is probably going to be appeals and other...

06:59Okay, and that's exactly my question.

07:01First of all, do you believe that in the night of the election

07:04all the votes are going to be counted

07:06or it's going to take longer than that night?

07:10The process is, at first, electronic.

07:13So, we received a digital version of the vote

07:17but it's finally counted at least in one week

07:22after we received the physical votes.

07:26So, at this point,

07:28we don't believe that we are going to have a winner

07:30and tomorrow night

07:32there is going to be a lot of issues in the election

07:35probably mostly legal issues.

07:38We don't believe that there is going to be a lot of civil unrest

07:42at least during the day of the election

07:46but probably when we have these fierce preliminary results

07:49there is going to be a lot of commotion

07:52and we are asking people to remain calm

07:56to remain at peace

07:57to wait for the final result

08:00but still, since it takes a week

08:02there is probably going to be some civil unrest during that time.

08:06So, do you believe therefore

08:09that more than one candidate

08:12is going to declare himself or herself the winner at the same time?

08:17I believe that almost every candidate is going to declare himself as a winner

08:24and the only one that is going to be right is us

08:28because we have the votes

08:29and we believe that we are going to win

08:30the polls shows that

08:32but when you have the US president backing you

08:37you are going to be probably feel empowered enough

08:41to declare yourself as a winner

08:43even if you don't have the votes

08:45and the other candidate has the trap built in the preliminary results

08:50so he is probably going to also claim himself as a winner

08:54so we have quite an issue in the night of the election

08:57and at least at this point we depend on the institution

09:01to do all the voting, all the counting

09:04and then declare a final winner at least in one week.

09:09Russell, thanks very much for joining us.

09:12Thank you for having me.

09:14We were talking to Russell Garay

09:16he is the director of strategy

09:19of the candidate of the official party Libre

09:24that according to at least one of the polls

09:27she is a favorite to win the election

09:30it's called T-Research

09:32the poll institution that makes that poll

09:35and mostly we are going to have throughout the morning

09:39and throughout the whole day

09:41reports from this special team of Telesur

09:45we are going to be reporting from here

09:47from the studios in Tegucigalpa

09:49from our headquarters in Caracas

09:53and all over the country

09:55we are going to be following very very closely

09:57all the results and all the developments

10:00of this historic presidential election

10:03we get back to you now

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended