The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras announced the victory of the Freedom and Refoundation Party (Free) in the parliamentary elections held on November 28. With the triumph, the political force of the elected president Xiomara Castro it managed to significantly increase its representation in Parliament but will not have a majority.
The CNE declared elected the deputies of 16 departments and the mayors of 296 municipalities. The count is still open in the departments of Colón and Francisco Morazán, in which various judicial appeals were presented.
The councilor of the agency Kelvin Aguirre explained that Colón will be subjected to a special verification process after it was approved by majority not to apply the corrections to the errors of the system, while in Francisco Morazán the results of a challenge are awaited.
How the Parliament of Honduras is integrated
According to official scrutiny, the Xiomara Castro’s party got 50.2% of the votes. Second was the ruling candidate (National Party), Nasry Asfura with 36.3% of the votes.
In Honduras the Parliament is unicameral and has 128 members. With the result of the November 28 election, the ruling party will have 50 deputies, 20 more than in the current period.
Added to this are the 10 deputies elected by the Salvador de Honduras Party (PSH), an ally of Castro in these elections..
In any case, the ruling party will not have a majority in Congress.
Castro and his government must negotiate with the opposition, especially the Liberal Party, which will have 22 seats (4 less than at present).
The main opposition party will be the National Party with 44 seats (lost 17 in the election).
Parliament is complemented by Anti-Corruption and Christian Democrat parties with one seat each.
The legislators will take office on January 25 next, two days before Castro is sworn in as president.
The election in the mayors of Honduras
At the mayoral level the National Party won in 142, while the Liberal Party won in 90 and Libre won 50, with the rest divided between other parties and an independent.
Rixi Moncada, CNE counselor, assured that the elections had “a very high level of transparency and cleanliness,” although they must be repeated in the municipalities of Wampusirpi and Duyure for various violations of the electoral law.
The announcement of the results of the parliamentarians and locals comes less than two weeks after the CNE ratified Castro’s victory in the presidential elections. The politician, wife of former President Manuel Zelaya, prevailed in the vote with more than 51 percent of the votes.
Castro will assume the presidency on January 27 next replacing Juan Orlando Hernández, who is finishing his second term.
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