President Juan Orlando Hernández is getting ready to pass the torch in Honduras after a very controversial reign that started in 2014. The outgoing leader has been linked to drug trafficking by the United States.
Despite fears of fraud and violence, five million Hondurans are heading to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president. The head of state of the Central American country is elected by plurality in a single round.
Primaries were held in March 2021, and three candidates have emerged in the race to succeed Hernández, who won a contested and possibly unconstitutional consecutive second term in 2018.
Three candidates lead race to succeed Juan Orlando Hernández
Xiomara Castro, 62, is the face of the left-wing Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE). Castro, a former first lady, founded the party in 2013 with her husband, Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed during the 2009 Honduran coup d’état.
Castro has failed twice in previous elections for the top position in the country. However, this time around, she is the favorite, having led in recent polls.
Uncertainty remains because her main opposition, Nasry Asfura, is from the right-wing National Party (PN), which has been in power for a long time, is well organized and has more resources.
Moreover, Asfura, who is the mayor of Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, is described as charismatic by many observers. Asfura is running on a center-right message.
Asfura has been accused of embezzling $700,000 from public funds, and his name appeared in the Pandora Papers that leaked in October. He is one of the most popular political figures in Honduras, but he is now linked to offshore accounts in Panama.
The third candidate, businessman Yani Rosenthal, has not polled well as the frontperson for the center-right Liberal Party of Honduras.
Rosenthal is controversial and has spent three years in a US prison for laundering drug money. The politician was released last year and announced his candidacy soon after.
Xiomara Castro is seen as lesser evil
Castro is running as an unapologetic left-winger on a so-called “democratic socialism” platform. She wants to get closer to mainland China in a blow to Taiwan and the United States.
She has promised to make abortion legal after lawmakers in Congress and President Hernández implemented a ban earlier this year.
The left-leaning candidate also wants to tackle the drug and corruption problems plaguing her country at every level. Castro says she will reduce utility bills, a significant issue for a nation where the economy is struggling.
If elected, Castro would become Honduras’ first woman president. Critics have tried to link her to two late problematic figures in the region — Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
However, for many voters, she remains the lesser of the two evils.
Nasry Asfura is carrying Hernández’s baggage
Asfura is in deep trouble because of his links to embattled President Hernández, who might be extradited to the US if the left wins the election and is called a drug lord by many people.
The mayor was forced to distance himself from the president, who has seen a brother get sentenced to 30 years of prison in the US for drug-related offenses. Asfura has not said that immunity will be on the table for the incumbent.
Moreover, his party has been in power for 12 years, and a form of lassitude seems to have taken hold. The economy has also taken a negative turn in the last two years.
Unemployment sat at 10.9 percent in 2020 versus 5.7 in 2019. Hernández has faced many protests since he was reelected with the backing of former US President Donald Trump. Thirty people lost their lives during the demonstrations.
Asfura has to carry the weight of all the scandals that marked the Hernández years. Those different elements explain why he is well behind in the polling, but the other side believes the election could be rigged.
Honduras will also vote to elect 128 deputies to the National Congress, the unicameral legislature, 20 members to the Central American Parliament, 298 mayors and vice mayors, and 2,092 council members on Sunday.
