Honduran Elections

Last weekend Honduras had their primary elections. I'm not exactly sure of all of the positions that were being voted upon, but they were for sure voting for presidential candidates and alcalde (mayor) candidates.

Since being in Camasca, and teaching at the bilingual school, I have been doing a homes stay with a family.  It just happens to be that my stay is with the Alcalde of Camasca.  For the past several weeks he has been out campaigning in the 13 communities that he will be the Alcalde for.  Last Sunday were the elections, and it was like nothing I have ever experienced.

In Honduras, children are only required to go to school through the 6th grade.  Although, in many cases, kids drop out of school before 6th grade to begin working to help make money for their families.  That being said, the literacy rates for Hondurans is very low. For elections, this has been remedied by posting the candidate's photo above their name, and the voter marks their choice with an "X".  The list of photos then goes into a box, based on which party they voted for, and is counted at the end of the day. Then, a guy pulls the votes out, reads them aloud, and the vote is then confirmed by 3 other people, and tallied (by hand in a notebook) by two other people.  There are representatives present from all parties to make sure that no votes are fraudulently counted. Needless to say, it is an extremely long process.

Finally, after all of the votes were counted, it was decided that Julio, who I have been staying with, had indeed won the Alcalde nomination.  Julio's grandmother, who is 89 years old, had made 300 tamales to share with the community to celebrate Julio's victory.

Julio giving his victory speech-thanking the community for their support, and 'Gracias Adios'

We drank coffee, and ate empanadas and tamales in the street to celebrate the most Honduran evening I have ever experienced. I hope I am here in a year for the general elections.