REQUEST FOR USD 1.6 MILLION IN FY05 ESF FOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001643 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR WHA/PPC, WHA/CEN, WHA/USOAS, AND DRL/PHD STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAM AND DCHA/DG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV EAID PREL KDEM HO SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR USD 1.6 MILLION IN FY05 ESF FOR ELECTION ASSISTANCE/DOMESTIC MONITORING IN HONDURAS REF: A. 04 TEGUCIGALPA 1541 ¶B. FY06 MPP ¶1. (U) This is an action request for WHA/PPC. Please see para. 9. ¶2. (U) Summary: On November 27, 2005, Honduras will elect a new president, national congress, and mayors in the first national general election under the new electoral reforms. The new 2004 Electoral Law substantially reduces political party control of the election. Successful implementation of the electoral reforms is essential to tackling the long-standing patronage culture that has undermined transparency and a democratic culture in Honduras. These changes significantly impact the entire electoral process, affect Post's election-related MPP goals, and dramatically increase the GOH's need for technical assistance. Although the general election will take place in FY06, technical assistance will be needed in FY05, during the run-up to the election. Post therefore requests $1.6 million of FY05 ESF funds to support these key reforms. Of those funds: $500,000 is needed by Honduran NGOs to develop and deliver training and educational materials for voter education, $650,000 is for poll worker training of 260,000 poll workers who will work in 18,368 polling stations across the country, and $450,000 will field ten thousand volunteer domestic observers to cover all the polling stations nationwide. End Summary. ¶3. (U) Passage of the new Electoral Law in March 2004 allows direct identification of the candidate, significantly reducing the control that political parties held over the final selection of representatives off party lists (see ref A). The former system reinforced the customs, practices, and attitudes that sustained an extended spoils system. Cronyism and corruption have proliferated given the lack of accountability of representatives to their electorate. The new electoral system allows the voters to choose the candidates to Congress in a direct and transparent way, marking under the name and photograph of each candidate. The reforms provide the opportunity for transforming the electorate's political party patronage perspective to focusing instead on individual candidates. ¶4. (SBU) In Post's FY06 MPP, under Foreign Operations Budget Projections, we stated "There will be a Honduran national election during FY 2006. The successful execution of the November 2005 elections will create the necessary political environment for the country to continue its pursuit of needed political, economic, and legal reforms" (see ref B). Post requested funds in the MPP for supporting the primary elections and received $150,000 in ESF funds that were applied to the successful voter education activities. The implementation of the February 2005 primary elections successfully initiated the reform of the electoral process and tested the first phase of the electoral reforms, following a majority voting system for the Nationalist and Liberal Parties; the three smaller political parties did not participate in the primary elections. Successful implementation of the electoral reforms during the February primaries can be attributed to the broad voter education campaign that was possible using ESF funds. However, lessons learned from the primaries revealed weaknesses in poll worker training, resulting in incomplete or inadequate documentation from the polling stations. This required retabulation of vote counts and subsequent delays. The successful implementation of the electoral reforms is critical to sustain the progress and not let the critics succeed in pushing the country back to old, non-transparent ways. ¶5. (U) The radical change in electoral processes presents an enormous challenge for the November 27, 2005 general elections. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has already identified sources of funding for the November elections. Japan is providing $3 million to the TSE, but several areas remain without funds, including poll worker training, voter education, electoral systems administration, training, and monitoring. Adequate implementation of these critical areas would help ensure a successful electoral process if ESF funds herein requested were made available per paragraphs 6, 7, and 8 below. ¶6. (U) Voter education will be critical for the general election since it will follow a different format (proportional) from that of the primaries (majority). In preparation for the primaries in February 2005, FOPRIDEH (a USAID-funded umbrella NGO) had tremendous impact through an effective civic education campaign through the media. Voter education will be critical to educate the Honduran public on the new electoral law, the right to vote, electoral institutions, the new election system for members of Congress, party lists and open lists, the new ballot, stages of the polling process, causes for annulment of a vote, etc. Since the proportional system is poorly understood, voter education will impact the survival of the smaller parties by improving the electorate's understanding and thus, encourage more people to vote. $500,000 will be needed to develop and deliver training and educational materials developed by Honduran NGOs who have already demonstrated their capacity during the primaries in February 2005, reaching provincial and municipal capitals and further extending to some populations that are distant from the municipal capitals. ¶7. (U) An expanded domestic monitoring program will be essential to strengthen compliance with the new Electoral Law as well as to improve transparency and accountability. FOPRIDEH conducted a successful domestic monitoring program for the primary elections in February 2005 and states the need for more extensive domestic monitoring given the increased likelihood of fraud, given the high stakes, in the vote count process at 18,368 polling stations. Domestic observation must be expanded significantly since the monitors will play a key role in making this process more transparent. The estimated cost is $450,000 to field ten thousand volunteer domestic observers in order to cover the polling stations nationwide. Post also sees the need for international monitoring conducted by the OAS in conjunction with the Embassy, and possibly international NGOs, and has separately urged WHA/USOAS to supporting funding for an OAS election observation mission for the November elections. ¶8. (U) Poll worker training will be critical for ensuring credibility and transparency of the process. The effort will require selection and training of approximately 260,000 poll workers who will comprise the 18 departmental (provincial) electoral tribunals, 298 municipal tribunals and hundreds of members for the 18,368 polling stations throughout the country to ensure adequate administration of the elections. Training is essential to the success of the process given the complexities contained in the new legislation and the lack of local experience with the new procedures. The TSE will take the lead in training activities to ensure consistency and avoid the practices of the past whereby each of the political parties trained their members separately and interpreted procedures differently. Approximately $650,000 will be needed to cover this activity. ¶9. (U) Action request for WHA/PPC: Post requests $1.6 million of FY05 ESF funds to finance election assistance activities to prepare the electorate, local electoral bodies, and a national network of monitors that are critically needed to ensure successful implementation of the electoral reforms. ¶10. (U) Post appreciates WHA/PPC's consideration of this proposal. Tuebner