An HSN team reports from the Centro de Educación Basica Simon Bolivar in the neighbourhood Las Mercedes that Liberal Party representatives showed up at the voting table 7963 attempting to join the table. By Honduran law, voting table representatives cannot join the table after 9 am. The team reported that the Liberal party representatives began arguing with the rest of the reps at the table forcing the military to close the doors of the voting centre and shut it down for approximately 5 minutes. The Liberal party representatives were then escorted out of the voting centre.

Honduras voters choose new President amid tight security article from BBC News: Latin America and the Carribean, discusses the death of 5 individuals in the eastern department of Gracias a Dios [an area known as La Moskitia]

“Queues started forming early in the morning and a high turn-out is expected, authorities said.The polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and close at 17:00 at the latest. Around 5.4m Hondurans are registered to vote.The most serious incident on Sunday was the killing of five men a few metres away from the polling station of Juan Francisco Bulnes, in the eastern La Mosquitia, close to the border with Nicaragua.Initial reports said it was not clear whether the crimes, which happened shortly before the opening of the polls, had any links to the elections. Authorities say the shooting caused panic and delayed the start of the process in the town.”

* 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.

It 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 26^th 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).

The Honduran Government has announced a one-hour extension in today’s voting, in accordance with Honduran law. Polling will end at 5 pm. Anyone in line at that time will be able to vote, no matter how long it takes.

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

A HSN team in the Neighbourhood Travesía report that ‘Cristobal Castro Castro’, a deceased man was on the voting registry [In photo with an ‘X’ by his picture].

This is a common issue in Honduras. El Heraldo reported early today that dead people appeared on voting lists in Siguatepeque and Danli.

This clip was posted by Honduras Libre and Democratica and includes a video of a Member of MER [Voting table] reporting that he is a representative of the National Party but his credentials indicate that he represents the Alianza Patriotica [Patriotic Alliance] party. Is this a potential case of a smaller party selling voting table representation to the National Party?