US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA2438

S E C R E T TEGUCIGALPA 002438 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/PPC, WHA/USOAS, AND WHA/CEN 
NSC FOR DAN FISK 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, ECON, KCRM, PINR, HO 
SUBJECT: HONDURAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DAY 6 - CIRCLING 
THE TARMAC, RUNNING OUT OF METAPHORS; STILL NO CONCESSION 
 
REF: TEGUCIGALPA 2432 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Chief of the Political Section Derrick M. Olsen; 
Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) National Party candidate Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo called 
Ambassador the late afternoon of December 2 to inform the 
Ambassador that he will not concede today, and explain that 
he did not concede December 1 at the request of his party who 
allege widespread irregularities in the electoral table vote 
counts.  At the National Party's request, the DCM and 
PolChief met with National Party VP candidate Mario 
Canahuati, congressional candidate and key party official 
David Matamoros, and National Party official Africo Madrid 
the same afternoon for an hour at the Embassy to discuss the 
National Party's concern over alleged fraud at numerous 
electoral tables and the relatively high percentage (6) of 
null votes.  The National Party leaders claimed there was a 
scheme by the Liberal Party to in effect stuff numerous 
ballot boxes with extra ballots brought by individual voters 
to affect each electoral table at the margins.  The National 
Party is also briefing the OAS on the alleged fraud. 
 
2. (SBU) PolOffs discussed the alleged problem later that 
evening with Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) Magistrate Saul 
Escobar and technical staff, who assured PolOffs that (a) the 
TSE checked for numerous irregularities in vote counts, 
 
SIPDIS 
including the number of ballots in the closing vote counts 
not being more than the number of ballots issued to that 
electoral table, and (b) they would work to brief the parties 
better on this fraud prevention work and that the parties 
could raise any alleged fraud concerns at the TSE 
consultative commission (as the National Party said it had 
done on this issue).  Despite these reassuring answers, these 
same National Party officials went on TV the night of 
December 2 to charge fraud. 
 
3. (C) PolChief asked Liberal Party member Hugo Noe Pino the 
afternoon of December 2 if Liberal Party presidential 
candidate Manuel "Mel" Zelaya would like to have a public but 
non-congratulatory meeting with Ambassador or wait to have a 
public congratulatory meeting with the Ambassador after a 
Lobo concession.  Zelaya told the Ambassador in an early 
evening phone call December 2 that he wanted to wait until 
Lobo officially conceded before having a public meeting with 
the Ambassador, and that early next week would be fine. 
Zelaya and his team do not appear to be worried about the 
National Party fraud charges, and have proceeded to discuss 
with the press plans for their future administration. 
 
4. (SBU) Chief of the Organization of American States' 
Electoral Observation Mission Moises Benamor left the country 
the afternoon of December 2; four technical staffers remain 
for OAS representation. 
 
5. (SBU) As of 7:12pm local time, the TSE had approximately 
89 percent of the electoral tables counted, little progress 
from the 88.06 percent from this morning.  Zelaya continues 
to lead Lobo 49.90 percent (915,075 votes) to 46.16 percent 
(846,493 votes), a 3.74 percent lead.  These numbers included 
at 4:00pm at least 88.5 percent of the Cortes Department, 
including San Pedro Sula, (where Zelaya is beating Lobo by 
8.69 percent), and 85.2 percent of Francisco Morazan 
Department, including Tegucigalpa, (where Lobo has a 4.62 
percent lead over Zelaya), and 87.0 percent of the Yoro 
Department (where Zelaya is beating Lobo by 11.21 percent). 
The website (when working) lags in updated information but 
when working has reliable results: http://resultados.tse.hn. 
 
6. (C) Comment: Post is concerned that the National Party may 
challenge the entire results of the general elections based 
on irregularities.  Post notes that in the National Party 
meeting every suspect vote count shown to EmbOffs appeared to 
be signed by the National Party electoral table 
representative, meaning all those representatives were either 
in cahoots with or oblivious to any alleged fraud, both 
rather unlikely.  The TSE posted results still show Zelaya as 
the likely winner barring either a change due significant 
reversals of electoral tables or a highly improbable 
turnaround in the remaining 10 percent of votes.  Post is 
unsure when this never-ending race will stop.  End Comment. 
Ford