The Honduran opposition Xiomara Castro She declared herself the winner in Sunday’s presidential election, amid preliminary results that pointed to a landslide victory that would return the left to power for the first time since her husband was overthrown in a coup 12 years ago.
With 51.45% of the votes counted, Castro, wife of former president Manuel Zelaya, reaped 53.61% support, while Nasry Asfura, mayor of the capital and candidate of the ruling National Party (PNH), obtained 33.87%, according to preliminary official figures.
Unlike what happened four years ago, the elections, that could give Honduras its first female president, seemed to be close to being concluded without violent protests, as happened then when there was a sudden turnaround of the results, after the count was stopped for hours.
This year’s elections were held in a context of corruption scandals and social unrest in the Central American nation, fueled by an economy in crisis and chronic violence from organized crime, which has pushed a record number of Hondurans to abandon their place of office. origin.
Castro, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist in a country where very few women hold positions of power, vowed during his campaign to end corruption.
“We made history,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
“We reversed authoritarianism and reversed continuity,” she told supporters on Sunday night, surrounded by colleagues from her Libertad y Refundación (Libre) Party, advisers and family members, including her husband, who was overthrown when he tried to change the Constitution, according to opponents. , to perpetuate themselves in power.
Alliances
Castro, 62, also pledged to strengthen participatory democracy through popular consultations, a tool that has been used repeatedly by leftist leaders in the region.
Critics have painted her as a dangerous leftist radical and congratulations from the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, made them fear a future alliance.
However, business leaders were quick to build bridges.
“(The) private sector reiterates its commitment to do everything necessary for its management to be an example of transformation,” wrote Eduardo Facusse, a leader of the country’s main chamber of commerce, on his Twitter account on Sunday night.
Castro, who ran for the presidency in 2013, responded: “We are going to work hand in hand with the private sector to improve the investment climate in order to create jobs.”
Xiomara Castro, degree in business administration, He knew how to take advantage of the unpopularity of the outgoing president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who modified the Constitution to allow his contested reelection in 2017 and was implicated in a drug trafficking case in a federal court in the United States.
Hernández has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but his party’s candidate, Asfura, struggled to keep his distance from the president during the election campaign.
On Sunday night, Asfura asked the other presidential candidates and voters on his Twitter account to wait for the vote count to finish.
The fate of the 128 members of the Honduran Congress was also up in the air, as the electoral referee has not yet released the preliminary results. If the HNP can maintain control, it could block many of Castro’s proposals.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx