Elections

I have been following the presidential race in the US a bit, reading articles in The New York Times and other sources. But Honduras is also in the midst of electoral campaigns.

In November of 2009, Honduras will have elections for the presidency, for congress, and for mayors throughout the nation. But this November there will be the elections within the parties – a bit like US primaries.

But elections here are another matter altogether.

People complain that the politicians arrive just before the elections with promises but never fulfill them when they’re elected. They also note that there are often a lot of projects begun in the year or so before the elections – to sort of show that the politicians can do something. This arouses a lot of cynicism.

During a visit to a rural village last weekend that doesn’t have electricity, a delegate of the Word told how a group supporting one of the presidential candidates arrived and promised to get their village electricity if they supported the candidate and his slate of candidates. A few thousand lempira would arrive soon but the rest would come after the candidate is elected. Isn’t this a form of corruption and bribery?

But it sometimes gets nastier than this.

Recently a presidential candidate for the withdrew, saying that he and his family had received death threats, presumably for his opposition to corruption.

People thus feel somewhat powerless in the face of this type of politics. I have found both cynicism and fatalism in many people.

In the face of this, many church people here castigate both of the major political parties for corruption, for inefficiency, and worse. They really hope for a different type of politics.