The match Freedom and Refoundation (Free) of the president-elect Xiomara Castro will have 50 deputies in the Honduran Congress, 20 more parliamentarians compared to the previous period, although it will not have a majority. While the Commission for the transition of social movements of the Castro government began to meet with social sectors and during January it will continue with an agenda full of meetings with the teaching profession, indigenous and black peoples, fishermen, health workers, political prisoners and exiles, migrants, women, LGBTQIA, students and community media.
The party with the most seats
The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared elected the congressmen of 16 departments and the mayors of 296 municipalities. The agency also specified that the count is still open in the departments of Colón, in the north of the country, and Francisco Morazán, where the Honduran capital is located. The National Congress of Honduras is an organ unicameral and it is made up of 128 deputies. The Libertad y Refundación party was the only majority formation that did not lose seats and obtained 50 deputies, 20 more than in the previous period. On the other hand, the Salvador party of Honduras (PSH), allied to Libre in the last elections, got 10 deputies.
But nevertheless, The Castro government will not have a simple majority (65 seats) in parliament and will have to negotiate with the opposition Liberal party, which will have 22 seats, four less than in the current period. Meanwhile he National Party, who ruled for the last decade, lost 17 seats in the last elections and it will have 44 deputies in congress. The match Anti-corruption and the Christian Democratic party each won one seat. In the mayoralties, the National party won 142, the Liberal party won in 90 mayoralties and Free in 50, while the remaining 16 went to minority parties and an independent party. According to official data from the CNE, the party of the president-elect got 50.2 percent of the votes. In second place was the candidate of the ruling party (National party), Nasry Asfura, with 36.3 percent of the votes.
Action plan for the first 100 days
The president-elect has outlined the action plan for the next 100 days. According to Marcio Sierra, a member of the transition commission of the new government, Castro will be focused on seven issues: “Employment, debt, fiscal policy, economic reactivation, the ENEE (National Electricity Company), and the fight against corruption”he told local media. Sierra also referred to the rehabilitation of educational centers, “it is urgent that children go to classes”, stated quoted by Radio Américto. In this sense, he specified that “For this, it is necessary to guarantee the vaccination of children and the rehabilitation of the centers”.
Dialogue with social movements
Meanwhile, the transition commission for social movements began to meet this week with different social sectors: workers’ centrals, peasant organizations, teachers, indigenous and black peoples, fishermen, health workers, political prisoners and exiles, migrants, women, LGBTQIA, students, youth, people living with HIV, retirees, community media, groups of protected areas and the social sector of the economy.
This week began the national dialogue “With all social sectors, starting with the three workers’ centrals and this day with the peasant sector, to know the situation, as well as their proposals and to be able to incorporate them into their government plan”said the commission of social movements on its website.
Peasant organizations
The peasant organizations of Honduras presented a document with the 11 axes more important that were prioritized in relation to the first 100 days of Libre’s government. “The reactivation of agriculture, the defense of natural resources, return to the INA (National Agrarian Institute) its constitutional mandate in relation to the legalization of land to the indigenous sector, women and peasants, emergency fund for agricultural reactivation for small and medium producers of basic grains and vegetables and boost and approve a new Agrarian Reform Law, for Food Sovereignty and Rural Development, with a gender and ethnic approach “, as indicated by the commission of social movements.
At the meeting, the representative of Via Campesina Honduras, Rafael Alegría, pointed out that “Honduran agriculture is going through a deep crisis, the worst in its political and productive history, because for more than 20 years the countryside has been paying the consequences of a neoliberal model that came to dismantle public and agricultural institutions”.
Workers’ Centrals
In addition, workers’ centrals of the country submitted proposals to the commission of social movements (initiatives, draft laws) on social demands of the union sector that include projects to dismantle the dictatorial structure, labor rights and human rights. On that occasion, the former president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, participated as a guest in the dialogue and assured that the requests of the workers’ centrals are contemplated in the government plan of Castro, his wife. “I don’t know if Xiomara copied it from the workers’ centrals or you copied it from Xiomara because this is Xiomara’s government plan.”Zelaya specified.
“I am authorized to tell you that those projects listed will be given the corresponding course of action through the agreement to be held in the State, same as You will fight the model of neoliberal, capitalist, patriarchal and exclusive privatizations in our society, do not doubt the commitment of President Xiomara Castro as it will be fulfilled“Added the former Honduran president.
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