US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA2327

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 002327 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/PPC, WHA/USOAS, AND DRL/PHD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CEN AND DCHA/DG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, HO 
SUBJECT: HONDURAN ELECTIONS NEWS: UPDATE 13 
 
REF: (A) Tegucigalpa 2253 and previous 
 
     (B) Tegucigalpa 1968 
 
Voter List: Nearly 4 Million People Eligible to Vote 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
1. 3,976,549 Honduran citizens are eligible to vote in the 
November 27 general elections; over one (1) million higher 
than the electoral roll in 2001.  On October 21, the Supreme 
Electoral Tribunal (TSE) presented copies of the electoral 
census to the political parties during a special ceremony. 
The TSE had not been able to formally handover the census 
previously because the National Registry of Persons (RNP), 
the organization charged with validating the electoral list 
of eligible voters, had not completed the process of updating 
the list.  Besides adding new voters, the RNP removed roughly 
100,000 citizens from the electoral roll, disenfranchised in 
accordance with electoral law.  Categories of persons deleted 
from the list included the deceased, members of the Armed 
Forces and the National Police, and those voters who had 
committed certain crimes during the previous four years.  The 
TSE plans to operate 5,312 voting centers with nearly 14,000 
 
SIPDIS 
electoral tables (each manned by a representative from each 
of the five parties) in the 18 departments of the country. 
 
2. 11,590 Hondurans, the majority of whom reside in the 
United States, registered to vote from abroad.  Accordingly, 
36 electoral tables will be in operation on Election Day at 
five Honduran Consulates:  Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, New 
York, and Washington, D.C.  TSE personnel and magistrates 
traveled to those cities recently to finalize arrangements 
and to train consular personnel.  For the 2001 general 
elections, over 8,000 Hondurans registered to vote in the 
U.S., however only 4,541 people actually voted. 
 
Congressional Candidate "Combos" Undermine Party Unity 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
3.  A new phenomenon presenting itself as a result of recent 
changes in the electoral law is the formation of intra-party 
"Combos" to advance a given subset of a party's slate of 
congressional candidates, even at the expense of other 
candidates from the party (ref B).  Members of Congress are 
elected at-large from each of the eighteen departments.  In 
previous elections, each party rank ordered their candidates 
from top to bottom.  How well the party fared during the 
election would determine how far down the slate the party 
could go:  candidate number one was likely to be sent to 
Congress while a candidate at the bottom of the slate stood 
almost no chance.  However, with this national election, the 
party list system has been abandoned and the voters can 
select whomever they want, regardless of the positional rank 
of the candidate. 
 
4.  Not unsurprisingly therefore, groups of congressional 
candidates from the same party are joining together to pool 
resources to advance themselves as opposed to the entire 
slate.  Interestingly, it appears that the "Combos" are not 
being formed along ideological lines or even from residual 
candidates from one of the intra-party primary election 
movements who successfully advanced to the general election. 
Instead, these formations appear to be entirely driven by 
practical aims and, some say, cynical considerations of 
personal ambition.  One additional goal of the "Combos" 
appears to be to undermine candidates who were top voter 
getters in the party's primary election.  Thus far, the 
"Combo" phenomenon affects only the two major parties.  The 
National Party presidential candidate, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, 
and his Liberal Party challenger, Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, have 
condemned the practice, but the "Combos" continue in 
operation. 
 
5. The largest group in operation is "Combo Chorizo - The 
Combo of the People," a grouping of 13 of the 23 Liberal 
Party candidates for Congress from the Department of 
Francisco Morazan, home to Tegucigalpa.  According to 
accusations registered with the Executive Council of the 
Liberal Party, "Combo Chorizo," headed by Candidate Jack 
Arevalo, is actively sabotaging fellow Liberal Party 
congressional candidates during party rallies and at other 
campaign functions.  Critics contend that members of the 
Arevalo group, which includes Lino Tomas Mendoza, Pedro 
Molina, Mauricio Mendoza, and Alejandra Alvarenga, hired a 
group of 20 "activists" who dedicate themselves to disrupting 
the rallies and campaign activities of other Liberal Party 
candidates.  Their tactics reportedly involve debating with 
bystanders, making excessive noise, throwing objects, being 
disrespectful, etc.  The "activists" have allegedly 
interfered with candidates at various campaign activities 
throughout Tegucigalpa and have even followed certain 
candidates to events in other venues outside of the capital. 
 
Ford