Responses to the Coup d'etat in Honduras on Sunday June 28, with special emphasis on producing English-language versions of commentaries by Honduran scholars and editorial writers and addressing the confusion encouraged by lack of basic knowledge about Honduras.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Going Around in Circles

The de facto government of Roberto Micheletti Bain, yet again today, proposed the already rejected idea that if Zelaya steps down, Micheletti will step down, and some third party could take over. Its been suggested, and rejected, multiple times in the negotiations, and even in the months leading up to the negotiations. Vilma Morales, negotiator for Micheletti, made this suggestion during a press conference this morning after Zelaya declared the dialogue closed.

Zelaya, in a phone call to Radio Globo, compared it to staging yet another coup.

3 comments:

Nell said...

Al Giordano has a new post that brings to life and makes a great case for something very like RAJ's proposal for a parallel vote on November 29 -- a Primera Urna on a constituent assembly right outside each polling station.

Pete said...

Yes - a vote organised by the resistance and counted by the resistance - how very novel!

RAJ said...

Pete, what would you suggest as a way to allow the people to register their real opinions?

The ballots do not have a way for voters to indicate disagreement with all the existing candidates. If you mark the ballot, there are procedures to "interpret" random marks as a vote for someone in particular.

The law calls for universal voting and while that has obviously not been enforced (given the deep dip in participation) this is a regime guilty of intimidation. And not participating risks letting those enthusiastic about the coup to register more strongly than they really should in the country.

The two possible protest votes include supporting a party-- the UD-- which is part of the established system, and many of those in the resistance are not necessarily in sympathy with all UD positions; or voting for an independent candidate, who again may not represent the positions that the resistance is in favor of supporting.

The resistance wants a way to show that there is a large number of people in favor of constitutional reform, without which there are serious questions about how democratic the Honduran government is. A poll of some kind would potentially do that.

And yes, not original: this is after all what made the June 28 encuesta so threatening: having a measure of discontent. Although see our next post for exploration of the latest poll numbers on that score.