Honduras

How It Started

In 2017, the Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter conducted preelection visits to Honduras to analyze the electoral environment and to promote a peaceful process.

Our Work and Methods

• Former Panamanian President Martin Torrijos, a member of the Friends of the Charter, traveled to Tegucigalpa Oct. 16-18.
• On Nov. 6-9, Carter Center staff returned to hold follow-up meetings and join the Organization of American States’ international election observation mission.

Impacts

• President Hernández was re-elected, although questions about the integrity and transparency of the election ignited a wave of protests across the country.
•  In 2018-2019, The Carter Center organized a series of awareness-raising and advocacy activities to support Honduran efforts to design and implement electoral reform in collaboration with local partner Asociación para una Sociedad mas Justa (Association for a More Just Society) and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
• Since 2019, The Carter Center has collaborated with the National Democratic Institute office in Honduras to support a network of civil society organizations as they monitor electoral reform implementation and the country’s electoral cycle.

How It Started

The November 2013 general elections in Honduras took place amid a long history of electoral fraud and deteriorating human rights situations. The Supreme Electoral Council, vowing that these elections would be fair and open, invited The Carter Center to send a small high-level delegation to observe. Though not an official election observation mission, the presence of the delegation was an expression of the international community’s strong interest in the democratic process in Honduras.

Our Work and Methods

• The Center’s delegation, led by former Presidents Carlos Mesa of Bolivia and Martin Torrijos of Panama, made three preelection visits to meet with the judges of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, political party officials, and presidential candidates, as well as international observers.
• Following up on the delegation’s recommendations, in March 2014, The Carter Center and the local office of the National Democratic Institute for International Relations co-sponsored a seminar on electoral reform.
  • The four-day seminar brought together more than 230 representatives of political parties, electoral authorities, civil society organizations, academia, and the international community, along with members of Congress, to discuss the Honduran presidential election and examples of successful reform initiatives throughout Latin America, along with other topics.

Impacts

• After the 2013 election — when a record number of Hondurans went to the polls — the Carter Center delegation recognized the efforts of everyone involved to contribute to more inclusive and transparent elections. At the same time, it recommended that Honduras consider significant electoral reforms.
• Political and academic experts who presented at the 2014 seminar helped give Honduran society a broader perspective on Latin American experiences with electoral reform.
• In November 2014, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández met with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at The Carter Center. And in January 2015, following an invitation from President Hernández, representatives from the Latin America and Caribbean Program traveled to Tegucigalpa to assess the timing and possibility of collaborating with the Hondurans on an electoral reform project.