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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001073 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2018 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV SOCI EFIN EAID HO
SUBJECT: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF HONDURAN PRIMARIES: LOBO 
FOR THE NATIONAL PARTY AND SANTOS/VILLEDA FOR THE LIBERAL 
PARTY 
 
REF: TEGUCIGALPA 1072 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Hugo Llorens, Reasons 1.4 (b & d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary. Honduran voters from the two main parties 
(National and Liberal) went to the polls November 30 to elect 
the candidates from their respective parties.  The election 
process was smoothly run, with all observers and the press 
describing them as a clear success.  At this point, they 
appear to have been the cleanest primaries in Honduran 
history.  Preliminary results, show that Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo 
won in a landslide in the National Party election and Vice 
President Elvin Santos' stand-in Mauricio Villeda won a 
decisive victory over President of the Congress Roberto 
Micheletti in the Liberal Party election.  The Embassy was 
thoroughly involved in supporting the democratic process 
through technical support throughout the year to the National 
Register of Persons (which issues the voter credentials) and 
the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).  The Embassy also 
provided ten of the 52 international observers under the 
auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS), which 
were sent to three departments and visited a total of over 50 
polling stations (see reftel). Please see action request para 
¶10. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) With about eight percent of precincts reporting, 
(including precincts in the biggest population centers) Lobo 
had an overwhelming lead, taking 78 percent of votes 
reported.  Mario Canahuati came in a very distant second with 
20 percent of the vote.  In the Liberal Party, Santos and his 
stand-in Villeda had a commanding lead with 57 percent of the 
vote, as compared to Micheletti with 23 and Eduardo Maldonado 
with 18.  As of 8:30 p.m. local time, Canahuati had given a 
graceful concession speech, but Micheletti had not yet spoken 
publicly.  Results are coming in very quickly thanks to the 
rapid transmission of election results (TREP) being used by 
the Honduran Elections Tribunal, which involves "real time" 
cell phone calls from the individual elections tables to the 
Tribunal with the complete results for the presidential 
races. Official results for all races will take some days to 
report. 
 
¶3. (C) While Micheletti had not yet conceded, we understand 
that he admitted to intimates that he had lost the campaign. 
 
¶4. (U) OAS and local observers are reporting that these 
elections went extremely well on a technical level.  At this 
point, the elections appear to have been the most transparent 
in Honduran history.  The Embassy was thoroughly involved in 
supporting the democratic process through technical support 
throughout the year to the National Register of Persons 
(which issues the voter credentials) and the Supreme 
Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The rules established by the 
Elections Tribunal in conjunction with the parties made for a 
transparent process and included the first-time use of 
transparent ballot boxes, the TREP quick transmission 
mechanism, voting at the tables that was open to the public, 
and election registration lists at the tables that had the 
photograph of the individual voters to match with their 
national ID cards.  Credit is also due to the Honduran 
military, which plays a key role in this process, guarding 
election material, delivering it to the polling centers, 
providing security at the polls, and then returning official 
results and all ballots to the TSE. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) This does not mean there were no hiccups.  For 
example, while the over 5,000 Honduran polling stations 
(mostly located in schools) were to have opened at 7:00 a.m., 
our review of over 50 individual stations showed that all 
opened late, some up to two hours late.  This probably 
explains the TSE's afternoon decision to extend closing time 
by an hour. Most of our observers reported that voting was 
extremely light in the morning, but that it picked up 
substantially in the late afternoon.  There were also some 
 
TEGUCIGALP 00001073  002 OF 002 
 
 
accusations of irregularities at individual polling stations. 
 
¶6. (U) The Ambassador, DCM, and USAID Director spent the day 
touring electoral sites and meeting with observer groups, as 
well as receiving a briefing from the Honduran military on 
its role in delivering and protecting election material.  The 
day started with the military briefing at the Estado Mayor, 
also attended by the French, German, and Italian ambassadors. 
Later in the day, OAS Observer Delegation Chief Raul Alconada 
reported that the election process was going extremely well, 
He agreed that the Honduran system was impressive and that 
Honduras, only one of two countries in Latin America that has 
national primaries ( the other being Uruguay), may have 
lessons to teach many countries in the region.  The Embassy 
team also visited four polling sites, talking with poll 
workers and votes.  The press interviewed the Ambassador a 
number of times, including a joint interview with the 
European ambassadors at the Estado Mayor.  The Ambassador 
noted that the Honduran people had the final word and were 
the true winners in this electoral process. 
 
¶7. (U) The Embassy contributed 10 of the OAS' 52 observers 
who fanned out around the country to make spot checks at a 
number of polling sites.  While only covering a small number 
of the total sites, the OAS presence helped reassure 
Hondurans nervous about past elections' irregularities. 
 
¶8. Comment: (C) In contrast to Nicaragua, the Honduran 
primary campaigns were great exercises in democracy.  All of 
the ten candidates represented a wide spectrum of ideological 
views from the left to the right.  There was a high degree of 
debate and unimpeded campaigning across the country.  The 
process itself appears to have been a model. 
 
¶9. (C) Lobo's lead was expected, but the strength shown by 
the Santos/Villeda team is surprising.  Pundits believed that 
Santos/Villeda was ahead, but had predicted a closer race. 
Lobo, who ran a strong law and order campaign, is expected to 
easily unify the party and comes out of the primaries as the 
favorite for the general elections scheduled for November 
¶2009.  A telling indicator of Pepe's strength is that the 
National Party easily outpolled the Liberal Party.  Santos 
now has the popular mandate, but will need to bring the 
Liberal Party together by negotiating the support of both 
Zelaya and Micheletti.  His huge victory will certainly 
bolster, but not guarantee, his constitutional claim with the 
Supreme Court that he be allowed to run (reftel and 
previous).  If Elvin is not allowed to run, Mauricio, the son 
of great Liberal Party caudillo and President Villeda 
Morales, will make a strong candidate in his own right.  End 
Comment. 
 
¶10. Action request: Assuming that current trends are correct 
and that reporting on Monday shows the primaries to have been 
clean and have produced clear winners, the Embassy recommends 
that the Department issue a press statement praising the 
statement.  The Embassy will email a proposed draft to 
WHA/CEN tomorrow. 
LLORENS