Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net
According to Ban Ki-Moon, UN secretary general, in Honduras there are no conditions for holding credible elections that lead to peace and security. Nonetheless, we think that in this country the citizen's vote is a viable alternative, despite the obstacles that threaten it.
Comparatively, in other conflicts where elections have been proposed to overcome the difficulties, they have had good results, and have been conducted in even worse circumstances than those of Honduras. There have for example the case of the electoral process that pacified Nicaragua in 1990, or the plebiscite that ended Pinochet's dictatorship.
And if the concern is the elections' transparency, the Honduras government can be pressed to improve the international observation, or the UN can suggest mechanisms to increase citizen oversight of the electoral process. But the problem is that the UN does not address the issue, but merely consider Zelaya's return to power as the only option.
In short, the Honduran election can be credible and may represent a long-term solution, because as we have said, the challenges are surmountable. In other regions of the world multilateral agencies encourage conflict resolution through elections; however, we do not understand why in the case of Honduras the world is denied that citizens decide their future by voting.
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- Zelaya returns to Honduras to prevent elections
Elections could be credible - if the government took actions that are the opposite of the ones they're taking this week.
ReplyDeleteThe UN never said that no elections under the current regime could be credible - after all, they were lending support until recently. They only said that the current policies, if continued, would make them impossible. You are arguing against a straw-man version of the UN's actions.
(Comment made in good faith, I hope it will be moderated in the same faith.)
Believe me, they would be more credible that those held in Iran or Afghanistan. Elections are the will or the people, they are not perfect, but it is the decent, proper,and practical way to resolve the Honduras crisis.
ReplyDeleteAccording to slashdot.org, at techie website that has been all over electronic voting for years, 45 voting computers were seized. Within them were tallies for a vote that was never held, Zelaya's poll on changing the constitution. The "results" were overwhelmingly in favor of Zelaya. If this report proves true, then Arias' contention that Zelaya must oversee the coming presidential vote fall flat.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/19/1646201/Computerized-Election-Results-With-No-Election?from=rss
But a most reliable survey, from Gallup, shows the contrary. You can read it by clicking here
ReplyDelete