1/The battle for control of Congress in Honduras has devolved into complete chaos after a group of 20 legislators from Libre split from the party line & joined with the National Party and Yanistas of the Liberal Party to elect the provisional leadership of Congress.
2/Prior to the election, Libre made a pact with Salvador Nasralla’s PSH party that would concede the presidency of Congress to PSH regardless of how many seats each party won. The math was always difficult, with 65 votes needed for a majority.
3/Libre won 50 seats, PSH 10 and there were 4 dissident Liberals who had supported Xiomara Castro’s candidacy instead of their own party’s candidate. In the best-case scenario, they needed to find one more vote to honor the pact and elect the leadership of Congress.
4/In the days following the election, however, the National Party & Liberal Yanistas began saying that the president of Congress should be a legislator from Libre, a clear intention to attempt to divide the coalition that launched Xiomara Castro to a resounding victory.
5/Nasralla & Castro agreed upon two-term legislator Luis Redondo as president of Congress. Redondo has maintained a firm anti-corruption stance during his tenure & overall there is more agreement than disagreement between his postures and Castro’s agenda.
6/Meanwhile, behind the scenes Libre legislator Jorge Calix worked to build up support for his own candidacy for president of Congress, ultimately earning the support of 40% of Libre’s legislators.
7/Last night, Castro called for a meeting with all 50 of Libre’s legislators to discuss the leadership of Congress. Only 30 showed up – a slap in the face to Castro, who reacted with a remarkable statement that labeled the absent legislators as “traitors.”
8/The issue isn’t so much loyalty to Castro, but loyalty to the people and the pact they voted for, which formed the opposition coalition that injected energy into the campaign, swayed undecided voters & increased turnout.
9/This morning, Calix was elected provisional president of Congress with around 83 to 85 votes – reportedly including 20 Libre, all National Party & the Liberal Yanistas. As a result, Libre has announced it will proceed with the expulsion of the 20 legislators from its party.
10/This all comes a week before the inauguration. On Sunday, there will be another final vote on the leadership of Congress. Over the next 48 hours there will be political wrangling, but it appears most likely the provisional leadership will be ratified.
11/Castro was never going to have a rubber-stamp Congress, but now it appears that pushing her agenda through Congress will be even more difficult than at first anticipated.
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