Too late for fair elections

With three weeks to go as of today to the scheduled date of elections, I think it is time to say clearly: elections held under the current conditions will not solve anything.

Campaigning has not been possible. People's attention is directed exclusively to the political crisis. Militarization of the country has created an atmosphere of repression that, while highest for those dissenting from the current governmental system, also must affect others who might not have as strong a position on constitutional reform, but may be discouraged from participating freely in elections.

And what would these Honduran citizens be expecting of any government they elect? Remember that the balloting goes from the level of municipal jurisdiction up to that of the presidency. It is important not to reduce the November balloting to simply a contest between 5 or 6 presidential candidates.

That seems to us to be what the US State Department logic is based on. Only if you think the "solution" is getting someone, anyone, into the presidential office who did not seize power illegally through the actions of the military could you possibly say, as Hugo Llorens is quoted as saying on Radio America today,

The elections will be part of the actuality and will return Honduras to a road to democracy.

Las elecciones serán parte de la realidad y devolverán a Honduras a un camino a la democracia.

Although Llorens, who has been the best voice of the State Department throughout this whole crisis, in terms of understanding the Honduran issues and being clear (clearer than Washington) about what is at stake and what has to happen, does state that this election is about everything from the level of mayor to president, as a diplomat, he is engaging in wishful thinking if he truly believes at this late date that the elections can be held in a way that will be understood by the Honduran people as free, transparent, and fair.

Saying the elections are definitely going to occur, Llorens continued

the Honduran people have the right to elect their president, a new Congress and mayors... and it would be a historic error of grand proportion to deny this right.

el pueblo hondureño tiene derecho de elegir a su presidente, un nuevo Congreso y alcaldes (...), y sería un error histórico y de grandes proporciones negar ese derecho.

Well, yes. But that historic error already happened when, on June 28, the right of the Honduran people to elect their President in 2005 was denied in a military coup, leading to a de facto regime which now pretends that holding polling under its supervision will correct things.

Two wrongs do not make a right.