Irregularities & concerns from HSN team in Tocoa, Colon.

* Young women with blue t-shirts of the National Party (but unidentified) help Elderly women go to vote in the School Colonia Suyapa in the Salama community.

* In all the centres that we have seen, there are people without photos on the voting registry or pictures that do not coincide with identification card.

* There have been problems with the test scanner at several polls of Tocoa. The copy of the test report could not be printed in the center of vote school Dionisio de Herrera.
* There are reports that the National Party has been pressuring elderly people to vote for them.
* There have been testimonies taken by the HSN teams that report that the Liberal Party has attempted to buy people’s vote.
* Sample ballots being distributed indicating which candidate to vote for from the National Party, Liberal party and LIBRE party.

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A Raffle to Ensure Rapid Data Collection

hola election dayIt seems that the National Party values efficient data collection. That’s why they’ve launched a raffle for 25 – 8GB tablet computers to the thousands of party  voting table coordinators who get their voting tally sheet copies into the party offices on time.

We don’t allege that this represents any kind of election violation. We simply present it to give a little flavor to the back story of the election.

–HSN Election Team

The following is the text from the memo sent to National Party Activists
(Translation by JW for the HSN/AGJ Montoring Team)

“Grand Raffle for 25 Tablets of 8GB

Dear Voting Table Members and Alternates of our Grand National Party:

Thanks for your committed support in this electoral season. Thank you for your great effort and work to verify and care for our party’s votes and vote tally registers throughout the election until the last moment.

We want to inform that all of you will be participating in the raffle for 25 tablets (photo attached)  that will take place on the 26th of November at 11 in the morning.

Only National Party voting table members and alternates will participate in this raffle, and the copies of the vote tally registers should be sent in to the party Communications Office before dawn on November 25, at the latest.

Make sure to pressure the Voting Center Coordinators and the others in charge so ensure that these registers are sent at the correct time to the party Communications Office and you can participate and have the opportunity to win this precious gift.

This gift is sponsored by the Grand Leaders of our party: Dr Roberto Gamez (Beto) and Jhony Handal (Coyote).

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Armed men threaten voting table representatives in Copan

COFADEH has reported an alarming incident that occurred this morning in the municipality of El Paraiso, in the department of Copán. Some 50 people who were designated as the representatives at the voting tables were surrounded in their hotel by over 100 armed men, who threatened to burn down the hotel if they reported to the tables.

More updates to follow as a team from the Honduras Solidarity Network is on the way to investigate.

Source (in Spanish):  Defensores en Linea

 

 

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Report: Five People are Killed in La Mosquitia (Gracias a Dios) at Dawn on Election Day

Five people were shot dead by unidentified men in the Caribbean region of Honduras,  a few meters away from a polling station, said Maylo Wood, the Deputy (legislative representative) for the Department of Gracias a Dios. The killings occured near a polling station.

The incident occurred at 6:30am local time (12.30 GMT) in the village of Bethlehem, in the Caribbean province of Gracias a Dios , known as La Mosquitia , bordering Nicaragua , Wood told reporters.

Two of the five victims, who until now have not been identified, died at the scene. Three others died at the Gracias a Dios state hospital, said the Deputy.

So far, the Honduran authorities have not said whether the incident is related to the electoral process, but the incident caused panic among those responsible for the polling and voters.

La Mosquitia is a region wrought with violence generated by drug gangs, who use the Honduras as a bridge for the shipment of cocaine from South America to the United States in planes and speedboats.

Last year, Honduran authorities seized more than 5,000 kilos of cocaine and about 20,000 kilos of pasta pseudoephedrine for the manufacture of ecstasy pills in different operations.

Article in Spanish: http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/elmundo/asesinan-cinco-personas-honduras-plenas-elecciones-articulo-460209

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ALERT: National Party activists intimidate observers from CESPAD en la Ceiba

Members of the Young Citizens’ Platform of the Study Center for Democracy – CESPAD – are denouncing verbal aggression and intimidation they have been subjected to by National Party activists, who have tried to manipulate the polling stations in places where they are conducting electoral observation.

The first complaint was made by Carlos Matute , who reported that in the Clara Barton preschool center in the city of La Ceiba , several recognized National Party activists approached the observers, saying : “Do you know where you’re standing? You don’t even know what area you’re in. I would think twice about being here .”

This statement was made to Carlos Matute, an observer from CESPAD who was officially accredited by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), who also added, “While they were saying this to us, the former candidate for the municipality of La Ceiba , who is part Miguel Pastor’s movement, of the National Party, kept his hand on my shoulder, squeezing very hard. ”

Matute said the intimidation occurred because in the morning , a complaint was made because one of the urns in this polling place contained one hundred ballots which had already been marked with their votes. The observers were quick to report what was happening, while the urns in question were confiscated. This situation greatly disturbed the accused, who then made intimidating statements towards the observers of the electoral process.

In Tegucigalpa , observers in the Mayangle neighborhood are subject to intimidation

In the Renacimiento high school, one of the voting centers located in the Mayangle neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Cintya Raquel Fiallos Palencia, one of the CESPAD observers, has denounced the constant intimidation by members of the National Party, who are in a tent distributing food to all the members of the voting table at this center.

“They are pointing at us and questioning our presence here. It is an act of intimidation, which should not happen, especially when you’re talking about making these elections transparent, ” said Fiallos , who is part of the group of unofficial observers as part of the Citizen Platform of CESPAD , and who is subject to legal restrictions as an observer, but can observe from a distance.

“Even so, they want us to leave, and to leave empty all of the perimeter. They’re even taking photos of me,” added Fiallos , who said she felt intimidated by being constantly pointed out and by the appeals that she should leave the voting center.

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Smaller Political Parties Selling Credentials to National Party

Four separate testimonies taken by an HSN observation team sent to Rio Abajo [a community just outside of Tegucigalpa] reported that “the smaller political parties have sold their MER [voting table representation] to the National Party”

This was a concern expressed by various municipal candidates of the FAPER/UD alliance who threatened to renounce their candidacy because their political party was selling their representation at the voting table.

As reported in La Prensa, “the candidates that we are ready to resign we are four, of the municipalities of San Jose Comayagua, Meambar, Taulabé and Siguatepeque, because we do not want to be a part of the corruption”.

Having more representatives at the voting tables is critical during the vote count and scrutiny because all members of the table must determine together what votes are null and valid. More representatives of one party will skew the ratio.

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