Honduras

Key Takeaways: Cost of Politics

Population: 10.3 million
Head of Government: President Xiomara Castro
Ruling party/coalition: Libre
Last election: 2021
Next election: 2025
Registered voters: 5.1 million (2021)
Annual salary of member of legislature: US$60,000
Year of study: 2021

Money buys votes and favours. Clientelism is widespread and entrenched in Honduran elections.

All candidates running for office who participated in this study through surveys agreed that the cost of seeking a political position has risen through the years in Honduras.

Money impacts the election of those who will hold public office and the decisions that will be made once in power, creating a vicious circle among the political and economic elites that has seen a deterioration in the quality of democracy.

The disproportionate concentration of power and resources of the ruling party and its candidates, motivated by the ambition to retain office, is what raises the cost of politics for those who aspire to public office in other parties.

The difficulty of accessing finance has become an entry barrier that hinders women’s access to power.

Public funding for political parties could be a tool to level the playing field and making participation more equitable.

36% of Honduran citizens have been offered money or goods in exchange for their vote.

36%

Key Findings

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Context

In 1980, a National Constituent Assembly was elected, in which three parties won seats: Liberal (PL), National (PN) and the newly created Innovation and Unity Party (PINU). The Constituent Assembly was responsible for drafting the country's new Magna Carta (Constitution of 1982, currently in force), thus opening the way to democratisation.
For much of its recent democratic history, the political party system in Honduras was characterised by a stability revolving around a two-party system. In fact, until a decade ago, Honduras could be considered a new democracy with an old political party system. But in 2009, the country suffered a democratic setback that, coupled with several structural problems, began the erosion of its traditional two-party system.
The 2013 presidential election reflected this new plurality, as well as the country’s growing polarisation. PN and PL lost the electoral hegemony that positioned them as the two most voted parties in the country for more than a century. The 2017 elections reinforced this trend and increased conflict and polarisation in the country.

Cost of politics drivers

Since the state does not provide political parties with funding to access media, the dependence on private financing and the high costs of advertising in these media hinders the equal broadcasting of all candidates and their proposals.
The implementation of the legislation for electoral funding (the Financing, Transparency, and Oversight of Political Parties and Candidates Act, better known as the 'Clean Politics Act') is not considered effective by interviewees. It is neither producing the desired impact on candidates' funding in terms of following the ‘ceilings’ nor detecting the origin of funds.
Through the last decade, drug trafficking, illicit enrichment and money laundering have become increasingly relevant in Honduras.

Conclusions and recommendations

The role of civil society organisations is crucial to demand and supervise the application of norms independently from the government and help put an end to the perception that there is a sort of complicity from institutions in charge of preventing, controlling and sanctioning the misuse of state resources.
For a better functioning of the Clean Politics Act, it would be very useful to approve reforms that have been recommended. The campaign ceilings are far too high for a country as poor as Honduras. The risk of having such high budgets is that once in power, candidates will seek to regain what they have invested.
Citizens believe that Honduras needs reforms beyond the political and social spheres; it needs reforms that transform power relations, that advocate for transparency and accountability to decrease corruption, and increase opportunities for citizen participation to have institutions that are more responsive to the real needs of the population.

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