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News > Latin America

Hondurans Protest New Congress Ahead of Hernandez Inauguration

  • A demonstrator holds a placard during a protest against the re-election of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras Jan. 21, 2018.

    A demonstrator holds a placard during a protest against the re-election of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras Jan. 21, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 25 January 2018
Opinion

The Opposition Alliance argues that a new parliament cannot assume its mandate when last year’s elections were fraudulent.

Thousands of Hondurans are expected to march to the the country’s Congress in the capital Tegucigalpa Thursday as lawmakers hold their first session since the Nov. 26 elections in order to protest the controversial re-election of right-wing President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

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The march is called for by the opposition party Alliance of Opposition against the Dictatorship whose ex-presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla argued Wednesday night that the Congress could not assume its new mandate after the “fraud” that took place during the recent elections, which included both presidential and general votes.

The parliament begins its first session Thursday, and Hernandez will be sworn-in as president in front of the country’s lawmakers Saturday, which Nasralla argues would make "Honduras a terrible state because international aid will be suspended."

People have been protesting the election since the end of November last year as many are convinced that Hernandez government has rigged the elections in his favor against Nasralla. At least 30 people have been killed in protests and clashes with Military Police which has been using teargas and live ammunition against demonstrators.

A new round of protests have been going on since Saturday as part of Nasralla party’s action against the inauguration of the incumbent president. The Opposition Alliance also announced a nationwide strike set for Saturday on the day of Hernandez's inauguration.

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Nasralla has also filed a complaint at the country’s Supreme Court after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal rejected his appeal on Jan. 6 to discard the previous elections.

"It is our constitutional right to protest fraud and we should continue at the national level until the 27th with the national strike," former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, leader of the Opposition Alliance, said Tuesday.

"In defense of the victory of the Alliance and Salvador Nasralla, the whole country will mobilize and there will be a complete work stoppage."

Aside from the fact that it took almost a month for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to announce the results of the presidential election, the opposition's main concern about the results came after Hernandez began to pull ahead after an hours-long technical problem caused the TSE system to "go down".

When the system came back the sitting president steadily began to overcome Nasralla’s original five percent lead with over half of ballots counted, which experts had said would be irreversible.

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