1954 Honduran general election explained

General elections were held in Honduras on 10 October 1954.^[1] The elections were relatively honest.^[2] and saw Ramón Villeda Morales of the Liberal Party emerge as the most popular presidential candidate with 48% of the vote. However, the constitution required Congress to confirm the president if no candidate received a majority in the popular vote. The Liberals did not have a majority in Congress, and the National Party and National Reformist Movement (MNR) agreed to block Villeda's candidacy, although they were unable to agree on a candidate of their own.^[3] The two parties boycotted the confirmation session in November – an idea proposed by US Ambassador Whitting Willauer – meaning those present did not form a quorum.^[4]

Amid the crisis, incumbent president Juan Manuel Gálvez handed over the presidency to his vice-president Julio Lozano Díaz due to illness.^[2] Lozano decided to remain in office,^[5] dissolved congress and appointed a 59-member State Advisory Council with representatives from the Liberal, National and MNR. It was to write a new constitution, labor code, social security law, and act merely in an advisory capacity to the president.^[6]

Results

Congress

Bibliography

• Anderson, Thomas P. The war of the dispossessed: Honduras and El Salvador, 1969. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1981.
• Bardales B., Rafael. Historia del Partido Nacional de Honduras. Tegucigalpa: Servicopiax Editores. 1980.
• Becerra, Longino. Evolución histórica de Honduras. Tegucigalpa: Baktun Editorial. 1983.
• Bowdler, George A. And Patrick Cotter. Voter participation in Central America, 1954-1981. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, Inc. 1982.
• Dodd, Thomas J. Tiburcio Carías: portrait of a Honduran political leader. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 2005.
• Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1. North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Edited by Dieter Nohlen. 2005.
• Euraque, Darío A. Reinterpreting the banana republic: region and state in Honduras, 1870-1972. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1996.
• Fernández, Arturo. Partidos políticos y elecciones en Honduras 1980. Tegucigalpa: Editorial Guaymuras. Second edition. 1983.
• Haggerty, Richard and Richard Millet. 1995. “Historical setting.” Merrill, Tim L., ed. 1995. Honduras: a country study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress.
• MacCameron, Robert. Bananas, labor and politics in Honduras: 1954-1963. Syracuse: Syracuse University.
• Martz, John D. Central America, the crisis and the challenge. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1959. 1983.
• Martz, John D. Central America, the crisis and the challenge. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1959.
• Morris, James A. Honduras: caudillo politics and military rulers. Boulder: Westview Press. 1984.
• Parker, Franklin D. The Central American republics. Westport: Greenwood Press. Reprint of 1964 original. 1981.
• Political handbook of the world 1954. New York, 1955.
• Posas, Mario and Rafael del Cid. La construcción del sector público y del estado nacional en Honduras (1876-1979). San José: EDUCA. Second edition. 1983.
• Villars, Rina. “La conquista del voto: mociones legislativas (1949-1953) y percepción social sobre los derechos de la mujer.” Estudios de la mujer: una antología. 2004. Tegucigalpa: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras.
• Weaver, Frederick Stirton. Inside the volcano: the history and political economy of Central America. Boulder: Westview Press. 1994.

Notes and References

1. [Dieter Nohlen]
2. Thomas P. Anderson (1969) The war of the dispossessed: Honduras and El Salvador, 1969, p59
3. Franklin D. Parker (1981) The Central American republics, p190
4. Kirk Bowman (2001) "The public battles over militarisation and democracy in Honduras, 1954-1963", Journal of Latin American Studies volume 33, pp539–560
5. Donald E. Schulz & Deborah Sundloff Schulz (1994) The United States, Honduras, and the crisis in Central America, p25
6. Thomas J. Dodd (2005) Tiburcio Carías: Portrait of a Honduran political leader, p229