Voter registration and elections improvement

Midterm evaluation covers the period 9/87-12/90. Virtually no progress has been made in up-dating, verifying, and microfilming the RNP civil registration lists. Only about 200,000 of 20 million records were microfilmed by 6/89, and even these will probably not be used. Nor has it been determined whether the method planned for updating the records will result in a reliable electoral roll. Further project assistance should be limited to a feasibility study of alternative updating procedures and an implementation plan and budget for the most feasible process. No progress has been made in institutionalizing and depoliticizing the RNP, and it is not clear that any can be expected in the near future. A career law for the RNP was introduced in the Congress, but not passed. The TNE is reportedly drafting its own career legislation. A high level discussion is needed to confirm whether or not the political will exists to seek a career law for RNP and TNE. On the positive side, support for the 1989 election was generally effective. The election took place on schedule in a relatively orderly fashion with a high level of voter participation and relatively few complaints. The training of election workers was important in this success; 41 supervisors were trained and they in turn trained 295 instructors, who trained 58,841 election workers. USAID/H and TNE believe that the voting places were better managed in 1989 than in the 1985 election. The evaluation team agrees, but thinks that follow-up surveys of election workers and the general public should have been undertaken to verify this conclusion. Also, three public education campaigns were successfully carried out, covering voter registration, the work of the TNE, and the electoral process, but again, a follow-up survey should have been carried out. TNE generally was not pleased with the TA provided by the U.S. contractors, but spoke highly of Gerentes y Empresarios Asociados de Honduras (GEMAH), which conducted three seminars and helped plan the election. Three major issues surfaced during the evaluation. (1) Close U.S.involvement in a Honduran election is not healthy. (2) USAID/H should fund a study to ascertain the degree to which current electoral practices discriminate against women being included on the electoral rolls and/or being able to cast their vote. (3) Because of their influence on hiring RNP employees and running the TNE, political parties must be included in discussions of future USAID support.