WASHINGTON, USA – The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (GS/OAS) welcomes the approval by the National Congress of Honduras of the new electoral law. The publication of this law represents a significant advance in a process that has lasted several years, whose objective is the recovery of the credibility and trust of Honduran citizens in the country’s electoral processes.
In January 2019, the country took a first step through the constitutional reform that created the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Electoral Court of Justice (TJE). On May 26, a second stage was concluded, fundamental for the organization of this year’s general elections, as well as future elections, to be carried out under an improved legal framework, the result of broad consensus among the political forces of Congress.
A third link is still pending. The GS/OAS calls for the political will expressed this week in the National Congress to also translate into the approval of the Electoral Procedural Law, which will allow the TJE to guarantee that conflicts that arise during elections are resolved in processes that have the appropriate legal regulation.
Since September 2018, the GS/OAS has accompanied efforts to promote electoral reforms in Honduras. Based on the recommendations of the Electoral Observation Mission deployed for the 2017 general elections, a team of OAS experts collaborated in different stages with technical support and reform proposals. We acknowledge the efforts of the presidency of the National Congress and of the political parties to advance toward this purpose.
The GS/OAS will deploy an Electoral Observation Mission for the general elections in November. We hope that the new law will contribute to making the electoral process more transparent, fair and equitable, that it gives the political forces the due guarantees, and that it allows the population to exercise their vote freely and safely. Likewise, that the institutions and political actors continue to contribute to the strengthening of Honduran democracy, which requires their assistance and ongoing commitment to generate a climate of peace and respect.
