Honduran president announces reelection bid amid constitutional row

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez says he plans to seek reelection next year, despite warnings from the opposition over the violation of the Central American country’s constitution, which mandates a single presidential term.

Hernandez made the announcement on Wednesday, saying it had been a “transcendental and complex” decision to make and claiming that it was his party that asked him to once again run for the highest office in the country.

Honduras’ constitution prohibits the participation of Hernandez in elections due in November 2017, and strips the citizenship of anyone who promotes making changes to the law to pave the way for re-election.

The Supreme Court in the country, however, ruled in 2015 that the clause on the ban was itself unconstitutional.

Under the original constitution, Hernandez, who took office on January 27, 2014, must leave office in January 2018.

The opposition accuses the incumbent president of having influenced the judges in the Supreme Court.

“According to our fundamental rules, he is disqualified from aspiring to office again,” Salvador Nasralla, the leader of a Honduran opposition party, said, accusing Hernandez of violating the constitution.

In 2009, former leftist President Manuel Zelaya was deposed by the military after he tried to hold a non-binding referendum on ending the one-term limit.

The Central American country’s president and his administration also face corruption allegations.

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