1957 Honduran presidential election

A presidential election (Spanish: Elecciones presidenciales de Honduras de 1957) was held in Honduras on 16 November 1957.

Although Ramón Villeda Morales had expressed a preference for presidential elections, the November meetings of the Constituent Assembly felt otherwise, and Villeda was not reluctant to accept their mandate as chief executive. On 16, after nine hours of rancorous discussion, he was named to begin a six-year term on 1 January 1958. The final vote was thirty-seven to twenty.[1]

To offset accusations by the opposition that Villeda’s election to the presidency by a simple majority of the assembly was totally ‘undemocratic,’ the Liberal party agreed to a form of coalition government whereby cabinet portfolios were distributed on a 6:2:1 ratio among the Liberal, National, and MNR parties. Even so, after Villeda’s election on 16 November 1957, the National and MNR parties staged protest demonstrations in the streets of Tegucigalpa, and it was not until late that night, when the military junta confirmed the election, that the possibility of armed conflict disappeared.[2]

The National Constituent Assembly named Colonel Osvaldo López Arellano as the country’s first chief of the armed forces. His appointment was to run for six years.[3]

References

1. Martz, John D. Central America, the crisis and the challenge. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1959. Pp. 161.
2. MacCameron, Robert. Bananas, labor and politics in Honduras: 1954-1963. Syracuse: Syracuse University. 1983. Pp. 94.
3. MacCameron, Robert. Bananas, labor and politics in Honduras: 1954-1963. Syracuse: Syracuse University. 1983. Pp. 95.