US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA2252

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002252 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/PPC, WHA/USOAS, AND DRL/PHD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAM AND DCHA/DG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, HO 
SUBJECT: HONDURAN CAMPAIGN FINANCE 1: SMALL PARTIES DECLARE 
PAST EXPENSES; NGO STUDY OF EXPENDITURES BREAKS NEW GROUND 
 
REF: Tegucigalpa 2138 and previous 
 
1. This cable is the first in an occasional series on the 
important, but difficult to cover, issue of campaign 
financing leading up to the November 27 national elections. 
 
CNA Requests TSE Enforcement of Campaign Finance Rules 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
2. The National Anticorruption Council (CNA) has officially 
requested that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) demand 
financial records from each of the five political parties 
running in the November 2005 general elections, as well as a 
declaration of assets for candidates for all levels 
(president/vice president, congress, and mayor/city council) 
to ensure financial transparency of the political campaign. 
 
Three Small Parties Give TSE Financial Statements 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
3. The National Innovation and Unity Party (PINU), one of 
three small political parties in Honduras, became the first 
to register a partial financial statement as required by the 
Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the Electoral Law.  Juan 
Ramon Martinez, presidential candidate of the Christian 
Democratic Party (CD), told the Embassy that the CD financial 
disclosure was submitted to the TSE although this has not yet 
been verified.  On October 28, multiple national press 
organizations reported that the Democratic Union Party (UD) 
had also followed PINU's example and filed a disclosure with 
the TSE.  The Liberal and National Parties still have yet to 
register their financial statements, the filing of which most 
observers deem critical to a transparent electoral process. 
 
Over USD 2 Million For a Month of Campaigning 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
4. The Association for a More Just Society (ASJ), an NGO, 
conducted a monitoring effort that determined that from 
August 27 - September 27 the five political parties 
collectively spent more than 43.3 million lempiras (USD 2.3 
million) on the election campaign for president and for the 
important Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula mayoral elections, 
with the National and Liberal Parties dominating the 
spending.  To conduct the study, ASJ monitored eight radio 
stations, 10 television channels, and four newspapers in 
Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.  Extrapolating from the cost 
of advertisements, ASJ made estimates as to how much money 
candidates had spent.  ASJ reported the following 
expenditures for the five presidential candidates: National 
Party candidate Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, 16.7 million lempiras 
(USD 885,280); Liberal Party candidate Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, 
15.8 million lempiras (USD 838,974); PINU candidate Carlos 
Sosa Coello, 989,780 lempiras (USD 52,453); UD candidate Juan 
Almendarez, 197,120 lempiras (USD 10,446); and Christian 
Democrat candidate Juan Ramon Martinez, 57,680 lempiras (USD 
3,057,).  In total,  33.78 million lempiras (USD 1.79 
million) was spent on the presidential campaign.  This amount 
represents over 93 percent of total spending captured by the 
study. 
 
5. The National Congress, which is supposed to spend money on 
institutional propaganda only, spent 1.8 million lempiras 
(USD 95,000) in ads to promote the image of its president 
(Pepe Lobo), who happens to be running for Congress.  The 
municipality of Tegucigalpa spent 1.78 million lempiras (USD 
94,000) on ads despite the fact that Tegucigalpa Mayor Miguel 
Pastor lost to Lobo in the February primaries and is not 
running for anything.  The mayoral candidates for the 
municipality of Tegucigalpa spent 1.13 Million lempiras (USD 
59,977).  The National Party candidate for Mayor of 
Tegucigalpa, Ricardo Alvarez, spent the most, over 1 million 
lempiras (USD 54,354), followed by PINU's Mario Rivera with 
81,117 lempiras (USD 4,299), and the Liberal Party candidate, 
Enrique "Kike" Ortez with 25,000 lempiras (USD, 1,325) .  The 
two remaining candidates,  Carlos del Cid of UD and Augusto 
Cruz of CD, did not spend any money during the period. 
 
6. For details on the ASJ study, check the following Spanish 
language website: 
http://www.revistazo.com/sitio_revistazo/hist ory=monitoreo_pr 
opa5.htm 
 
Williard