The national election in Honduras was held yesterday, and it appears that the new president is Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo from the National Party. This isn't much of a surprise; pretty much all of the people I've talked to expected Pepe to win, and he had been leading the Liberal Party candidate, Elvin Santos, by large margins in recent polls. Currently, La Prensa gives Pepe 57% of the vote to Elvin's 33% (as a note, people here do tend to call their politicians by their first names). Additionally, ousted president Mel Zelaya, from the Liberal Party, called for his supporters to boycott the election. So, more important questions concerning the legitimacy of the election and its (in)ability to move the country beyond the political crisis surrounding the coup will be debated in the upcoming days and weeks as voter turnout and null vote (blank ballots submitted in protest) numbers are refined and contested.
Gregory Weeks, a political science professor and UNC Charlotte, provides a summary of the political situation and preview of the election here.
Today's NY Times article is here.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Time Away
I have to apologize for the lack of posts over the last few weeks. The combination of work and graduate school applications has kept me very busy, and I have not made time to update the blog. I'm hoping to change this now.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
New Home
About 2-1/2 weeks ago I made my permanent move from Santa Lucia to the new clinic in Concepcion. I live in one of four bedrooms in the cottage shown in the photograph. While the views are more expansive here than in Santa Lucia and the weather is a bit cooler, the main the health clinic in not yet open and we are without the vast majority of the infrastructure that surrounds the clinic in Santa Lucia. I've been unable to update the blog recently because the internet signal has been spotty at best since I arrived. The dental side of the clinic is open, staffed daily by one dentist and one assistant, but I am the only person living here full time. I have plenty of work with the census to keep me busy and I am excited to get to know my new town.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)