Honduras will hold national elections this November, an electoral process unfolding against a backdrop of deep polarization, escalating violence, pervasive corruption and the influence of powerful organized crime groups. A failed or violent transition of power could lead to greater destabilization, possibly accelerating emigration and reinforcing regional authoritarian trends.

Concerns about the integrity of the electoral process are widespread. Both Catholic and evangelical Protestant churches in Honduras have voiced their unease. Local political analysts believe the upcoming election offers an opportunity to restore public confidence in democracy and dodge the return of authoritarianism.

On July 18, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Honduras and the Honduras Evangelical Fellowship, an association of more than 400 Christian evangelical Protestant churches and organizations, in a joint statement called “upon all men and women of faith to join in an extended prayer for Honduras” and to walk together, “in faith and hope,” to support peaceful elections in November. The march will be conducted on Aug. 16 in cities across Honduras.

“Let our message be clear: The will of the citizens, legitimately expressed at the ballot box, must be respected on November 30 and every four years,” the Christian leaders said. Candidates for public office were explicitly asked to refrain from attending the march on Aug. 16 to prevent the event from becoming an expression of partisanship, although the religious leaders offered to meet with candidates at a different time.

This show of ecumenical unity came about after Honduran election officials initially failed to reach a consensus on standards for a preliminary vote count for election night. That impasse was broken on Aug. 4, although other challenges persist. Discord among election officials threatens to derail the election timeline.

Political tensions are already running high during this presidential election cycle, which started last September. By mid-July the National University of Honduras had recorded 109 violent incidents related to the upcoming vote.

The election offers Hondurans an opportunity to choose among three candidates. Rixi Ramona Moncada Godoy is the ruling Libre party’s candidate. Nasry Asfura is a career politician and former mayor of Tegucigalpa from the conservative National Party that ruled the country from 2010 to 2021. He also ran for president in 2021 amid his party’s corruption and drug trafficking scandals but lost to the current president, Xiomara Castro. 

Salvador Nasralla, a former TV personality, is also seeking the presidency after unsuccessful campaigns in 2013 and 2017. Mr. Nasralla is running under the banner of the traditional Liberal Party. He has promised to fight corruption and boost the economy.

America spoke to Honduran analysts to understand the challenges that remain leading up to the November elections and the role of faith groups in preventing and, if needed, diffusing a political crisis.

A fragile election system 

Hondurans celebrated 40 years of multiparty democracy in 2022, commemorating a 1982 constitution that was established after decades of military rule. But the nation’s faltering democratic transition has frustrated expectations. In 2024 the Latinobarómetro, a yearly opinion survey of Latin American countries, found that only 18 percent of respondents in Honduras were satisfied with the state of their democracy.

According to an analysis by Gustavo Irías, the director of Cespad, a civil society research organization, this general dissatisfaction stems from the continuing failure of the state to provide basic services like education and health care, to tackle corruption or to address structural inequality, which continues to rise.

Despite its relative youth, Honduran democracy has already confronted more than its share of significant challenges. In 2009, the Honduran military again stepped into national politics, deposing President Manuel Zelaya, the husband of the current president, Ms. Castro. The coup plunged the country into a constitutional crisis that led to violent state repression. Elections were held later that year, but since the ouster of Mr. Zelaya, political parties in Honduras have struggled to come to agreement over the mechanics of the election process.

Unlike other countries in Latin America, the Honduran election system is managed directly by the nation’s three main political parties through the National Election Council. Decisions at the C.N.E. are made by three council members, each one appointed by their political party.

This arrangement has been criticized by international electoral experts. Observers from the European Union during Honduras’s 2021 election reported that polarization among election authorities led to “institutional weakness and lack of transparency, undermining public confidence in the administration of elections.”

Although Honduran election law requires only a simple majority to resolve most disputes that come before the C.N.E., its members have disagreed over which judgments require a unanimous decision. That has made the election process vulnerable to political pressure. 

This ambiguity fueled the nation’s most recent crisis. A council member from the ruling Libre party demanded that the preliminary vote count in the upcoming election be transmitted electronically as ballots are received, while the other two council members insisted on human verification of votes before transmission. All three parties claimed the others’ desired arrangement was part of a larger plot to commit election fraud in November.

The parties reached an agreement on Aug. 4. Preliminary results will be transmitted as they come in on election night, but human verification of the votes will be conducted the following day. According to Iolany Pérez, a Honduran political analyst and a journalist at the Jesuit-sponsored Radio Progreso, the chaos experienced at the C.N.E. might reflect a negotiation strategy. 

“All parties are accusing each other of fraud before elections even take place because none of their candidates have a solid lead,” she said. “This way the losing parties can pressure the winning side into political negotiations to advance their own interests.”

Describing Honduran monied interests as the “owners” of the nation’s political parties, Ms. Pérez believes some members of the elite prefer to create uncertainty over political outcomes, allowing them to then “negotiate in the shadows, not necessarily based on what is best for the country.”

Hector Corrales, the director of Nodo, a political think tank in Honduras, suggests that the tensions within the C.N.E. are warping the election process, a worrisome outcome for the country’s democracy.

“November’s outcome can only be understood by recognizing that the election has already been fundamentally reshaped,” he said. “The question is less who wins than how victory is manufactured and [what will be] its perceived legitimacy. The contest [has shifted] from voter persuasion to institutional control.”

“In practice,” Mr. Corrales said, “the most realistic outcome is a mix of external and military pressure creating the space for elites to settle on a pragmatic pact of survival.”

Complicating all political outcomes in Honduras is the presence of vast criminal resources for the funding of campaigns. There are no effective controls on political donations or mechanisms that can prevent candidates from accepting money from organized crime.

A government agency meant to track illicit donations lacks resources and enforcement power. In 2017, Honduras conducted what has since been accepted as a legally dubious re-election of Juan Orlando Hernandez. That former president is now serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for his role in facilitating large-scale drug trafficking.

Churches step in 

According to the 2024 opinion poll conducted by the Jesuit-supported Honduran civic organization ERIC-SJ—for “Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Comunicación de la Compañía de Jesús”—while some 80 percent of Hondurans say they distrust all political parties, Catholic and other Christian churches remain trusted institutions.

Pastor Angel Andrade, vice president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Honduras, believes this continued trust represents an opportunity for national spiritual leaders to advocate for peaceful political transition.

“Churches are places of people who have been transformed. They promote peace in communities,” he said. “Let’s remember that Jesus came to the world during the worst government of the times. But he didn’t come to change the government’s system. He came to do something much deeper. He came to transform the church.

“And he left us the spiritual tools to continue that work of transformation,” Pastor Andrade said. “We can use those tools to transform Honduras into a country of peace.”

The upcoming walk for peaceful elections, he said, is not a march against the government, but rather a call for prayer, where all believers and people of good will are welcomed. The pastor is concerned especially by civic polarization instigated by political parties and attempts to delegitimize the election process. He worries that in countries when the losing side rejects the election outcome, there is often violence, and he hopes that commitments to peace now might allow Hondurans to avoid that outcome.

But the churches’ walk-for-peace effort has also fueled a debate about the role of churches in Honduran politics. Some government officials, among them Rafael Padilla, the head of the Energy Regulatory Commission, suggested in local media that the walk might actually increase polarization because it would also be perceived as an expression of partisanship.

That concern emerged after a video surfaced of the head of the Evangelical Fellowship, Pastor Gerardo Irías, denouncing leftist governments in Nicaragua and Venezuela. Pastor Irías has stated that the video was taken out of context and that he was criticizing spiritual poverty among some regional government leaders.

Ms. Moncada, the Libre party candidate, warned that the Aug. 16 march could be perceived as an act of political interference after she was denounced because of a visit to a Catholic parish in the south of Honduras. The pastor of the parish accused her of using the church for campaigning. Ms. Moncada defended her presence at the church and said the criticism was a smear campaign, pointing out that she was merely praying with other parishioners.

Joaquín Mejía, a prominent human rights lawyer, has asked church leaders to reflect on how their actions may contribute to or diffuse polarization, pointing to the interventionist role played by some faith leaders in supporting the coup in 2009. He suggests that those church leaders should ask for the public’s forgiveness and refrain from involvement in political affairs. 

Despite those criticisms, the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Fellowship in Honduras renewed their call for the walk for peace which will be conducted in cities across the country. The Rev. Juán Ángelo López, a spokesperson for the Honduras Conference of Bishops, encouraged Hondurans to carry the flag of Honduras during the walk, leaving party insignias, flags and emblems behind.

Despite the polarization in the country, Cesar Ramos, the coordinator of the Pastoral Program for Human Migration of the Archdiocese of San Pedro Sula, which provides services to migrants crossing through or departing from Honduras, sees the churches’ upcoming walk for peace as an opportunity to practice dialogue and love at a national level.

“Alternatives can emerge from great crises,” he said. “Besides elections, Honduras is struggling with food insecurity, violence, unemployment and polarization. We must concentrate on solutions. We can find solutions to these puzzles with the help of a God of justice.”

“In my own work with migrants, I lean into the story of Jesus helping his disciples feed a crowd with only a few fish and bread,” he said. “We must also serve from where we are, from our own limitations. That’s why it’s important that the Catholic Church joins this cry for peace and dialogue and calls for adherence to justice and truth.”

“After the elections, the challenges in Honduras will continue,” Ms. Pérez said. “Churches need to keep playing a leading role demanding social justice. For example, insisting on a proper investigation of Juan López’s killing.” Mr. López had been a prominent defender of the ecology and Indigenous communities when he was slain last year.

“They need to remind all political parties that they all need to work for the common good of the country. And they should do it every day, not only every four years when we have elections,” Ms. Pérez said.

This article appears in October 2025.

Dany Díaz Mejía is a writer and speaker who contributes from Honduras.