This will be a short diary. The following report from The Real News shows unambiguously that reports of over 60% turnout in the recent Honduran elections were a deliberate fraud, enabled by the U.S. dominated corporate media and the National Democratic Institue, an organization affiliated with the Democratic Party in the U.S. that observed the elections.
As is widely known the recent elections in Honuras were carried out in the wake of the coup d'etat that removed President Manuel Zelaya from office. The mass movement that arose in opposition to the coup called for a boycott of the elections in which both major party candidates were supporters of the coup. In this context the question of voter turnout loomed large.
On the night of the election, the "victor," Pepe Lobo claimed over 62% turnout and the Honduran Electoral Tribunal announced a turnout of 65% even though their computers had crashed. In truth the Electoral Tribunal's own numbers only showed a turnout of 49% and these may be exaggerated as well.
The inflated figures were widely reported in the U.S. corporate media and have been repeated, giving the false impression that a majority of Hondurans rejected the boycott when the opposite is true.
Of particular concern to supporters of the Democratic Party is the role of the National Democratic Institute which provided cover for the coup government when internationally respected election observation organizations like the Carter Center refused to participate in the farce. While the NDI's own observers estimated a 47% rate of participation, the organization buried this finding and the discrepancy with the claims being touted by the corporate media. Even worse, the NDI promoted the false claim that the election was conducted peacefully when in fact it was characterized by bloody repression on election day and the murder of anti-coup leaders.
What seems apparent is that the U.S. government, the Democartic and Republican Parties and the U.S. corporate media, are determined to legitimize this election in order to maintain in office the compliant representatives of local oligarchs and U.S. interests irrespective of the wishes of teh Honduaran people.