HONDURAN CAMPAIGN FINANCE 1: SMALL PARTIES DECLARE

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002252

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/PPC, WHA/USOAS, AND DRL/PHD
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAM AND DCHA/DG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM HO
SUBJECT: HONDURAN CAMPAIGN FINANCE 1: SMALL PARTIES DECLARE
PAST EXPENSES; NGO STUDY OF EXPENDITURES BREAKS NEW GROUND

REF: Tegucigalpa 2138 and previous


1. This cable is the first in an occasional series on the
important, but difficult to cover, issue of campaign
financing leading up to the November 27 national elections.

CNA Requests TSE Enforcement of Campaign Finance Rules
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2. The National Anticorruption Council (CNA) has officially
requested that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) demand
financial records from each of the five political parties
running in the November 2005 general elections, as well as a
declaration of assets for candidates for all levels
(president/vice president, congress, and mayor/city council)
to ensure financial transparency of the political campaign.

Three Small Parties Give TSE Financial Statements
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3. The National Innovation and Unity Party (PINU),one of
three small political parties in Honduras, became the first
to register a partial financial statement as required by the
Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the Electoral Law. Juan
Ramon Martinez, presidential candidate of the Christian
Democratic Party (CD),told the Embassy that the CD financial
disclosure was submitted to the TSE although this has not yet
been verified. On October 28, multiple national press
organizations reported that the Democratic Union Party (UD)
had also followed PINU's example and filed a disclosure with
the TSE. The Liberal and National Parties still have yet to
register their financial statements, the filing of which most
observers deem critical to a transparent electoral process.

Over USD 2 Million For a Month of Campaigning
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4. The Association for a More Just Society (ASJ),an NGO,
conducted a monitoring effort that determined that from
August 27 - September 27 the five political parties
collectively spent more than 43.3 million lempiras (USD 2.3
million) on the election campaign for president and for the
important Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula mayoral elections,
with the National and Liberal Parties dominating the
spending. To conduct the study, ASJ monitored eight radio
stations, 10 television channels, and four newspapers in
Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Extrapolating from the cost
of advertisements, ASJ made estimates as to how much money
candidates had spent. ASJ reported the following
expenditures for the five presidential candidates: National
Party candidate Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, 16.7 million lempiras
(USD 885,280); Liberal Party candidate Manuel "Mel" Zelaya,
15.8 million lempiras (USD 838,974); PINU candidate Carlos
Sosa Coello, 989,780 lempiras (USD 52,453); UD candidate Juan
Almendarez, 197,120 lempiras (USD 10,446); and Christian
Democrat candidate Juan Ramon Martinez, 57,680 lempiras (USD
3,057,). In total, 33.78 million lempiras (USD 1.79
million) was spent on the presidential campaign. This amount
represents over 93 percent of total spending captured by the
study.


5. The National Congress, which is supposed to spend money on
institutional propaganda only, spent 1.8 million lempiras
(USD 95,000) in ads to promote the image of its president
(Pepe Lobo),who happens to be running for Congress. The
municipality of Tegucigalpa spent 1.78 million lempiras (USD
94,000) on ads despite the fact that Tegucigalpa Mayor Miguel
Pastor lost to Lobo in the February primaries and is not
running for anything. The mayoral candidates for the
municipality of Tegucigalpa spent 1.13 Million lempiras (USD
59,977). The National Party candidate for Mayor of
Tegucigalpa, Ricardo Alvarez, spent the most, over 1 million
lempiras (USD 54,354),followed by PINU's Mario Rivera with
81,117 lempiras (USD 4,299),and the Liberal Party candidate,
Enrique "Kike" Ortez with 25,000 lempiras (USD, 1,325) . The
two remaining candidates, Carlos del Cid of UD and Augusto
Cruz of CD, did not spend any money during the period.


6. For details on the ASJ study, check the following Spanish
language website:
http://www.revistazo.com/sitio_revistazo/hist ory=monitoreo_pr
opa5.htm

Williard