Honduras elects, on the national level, a head of state — the president — and a legislature. The President of Honduras is elected for a four-year year term by the people by a simple majority of valid votes (nulls and blanks excluded).
The unicameral National Congress (Congreso Nacional) has 128 members (diputados), elected for four year term by proportional representation to represent the country’s various departments. Honduras’ presidential elections are held on the last Sunday of November of the election year. Registration and voting is mandatory. The last presidential elections occurred on November 29, 2009.
Honduras has a two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties: the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) and the National Party of Honduras (PNH). The other three registered parties all produce a candidate for the Presidential election. PNH and PLH have ruled the country for decades.
Honduras’ five registered political parties:
- Liberal Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras—PLH), founded 1891
- National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras—PNH), founded 1918 and dominated Honduran politics from 1933-1957
- Democratic Unification Party (Partido Unificación Democrática—UD or PUD), founded in 1992 at the end of the Cold war when formerly clandestine leftist political parties were permitted to function openly (four merged to form the PUD)
- Christian Democratic Party of Honduras (Partido Demócrata-Christiano—DC), founded 1968
- Innovation and Unity Party (Partido Innovación Nacional y Social Demócrata—PINU-SD), moderate leftist, social democratic, founded 1970