Honduras

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. The delegation included a former president of Panama. Center staff also held follow-up meetings and joined an international election observation mission.  

Impacts 

•  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. 
• The Carter Center continued to collaborate with the National Democratic Institute office in Honduras to support a network of civil society organizations as they monitored electoral reform implementation and the country’s electoral cycle. 

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 heads of state from Bolivia and 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. 
• 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 event convened a spectrum of stakeholders 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 in creating more inclusive and transparent elections. At the same time, it recommended that Honduras consider significant electoral reforms. 
• Presentations 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. In January 2015, representatives from the Center’s Latin America and Caribbean Program traveled to Honduras to assess the timing and possibility of collaborating on an electoral reform project.