Hondura’s bitterly disputed Presidential election officially came to a close last week, when the Special Election Tribunal announced that incumbent National Party President Jose Orlando Hernandez had won reelection over his challenger Salvador Nasralla by a margin of only one and a half percent.
The U.S., Canada and Mexico were quick to endorse the Tribunal’s vote count, but the Organization of American States was sufficiently perturbed by the conduct of the polling that they have called for new elections. Meanwhile, in the aftermath, protests continue across the country.
Suyapa Portillo is a professor of Latin American studies at California’s Pitzer college, and she recently worked as an election observer in Honduras. She joins Eight O’Clock Buzz host Brian Standing by phone.
