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2017 Honduras Election

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FIU chapter.

 

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General elections in Honduras were held on November 26th, 2017. While polls showed the opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla leading by 5 points, the election commission claims the incumbent candidate President Juan Orlando Hernandez steadily gained more points- putting him ahead in the polls. However, many Hondurans, including Salvador Nasralla and other opposition party leaders, have accused the government and election commission of election fraud. The suspicion that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has tampered with results has caused citizens to take to the streets and protest. Many have begun looting and rioting out of anger, wanting to get the government’s attention. Citizens want the Honduran government to know they want the opposition candidate, Salvador Narsalla, to be their president; claiming he is the one who won. As a result, the government has implemented a 6:00am-6:00pm curfew. In protest of the government’s power, some banged pans from their balconies, held signs and honked horns right from their homes. According to the New York Times, a 27 year-old student stated the following: “With social networks, it’s really easy to know what’s going on.” The 27 year-old was Gabriel Zúniga Véliz, a student who went to the march in Tegucigalpa. “There’s still the hope that this can be turned around. We need to show how many of us there really are. The government has been corrupt,” he said. “This has been our reality for centuries.” But if politicians keep stealing, he added, “it gets past people’s breaking point.” His statement reflects the feelings of many Hondurans. 

 

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