Honduran fourth ballot box referendum

The cuarta urna or fourth ballot box referendum was a plan by Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to run a non-binding referendum to consult the public regarding the administration of a second, binding referendum to convoke a constitutional assembly. The referendum was planned to run concurrently with the November 2009 presidential, congressional, and mayoral elections (i.e. the first three ballot boxes). Some Hondurans opposed the plan, including many politicians from the two largest parties. When Zelaya pushed ahead with plans for this referendum (subsequently structured as a government-run 'poll') on whether to include a fourth ballot box (the second referendum), the Supreme Court issued a warrant for his arrest and the army expelled him from the country in a June 28 coup d'etat, precipitating the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.

On July 22, 2008, Zelaya had revealed that he was seeking to incorporate the country into the ALBA, an organization founded by Hugo Chávez. He said that the country had been "observer member" "four or more months". The Associated Press, citing Manuel Orozco of the Inter American Dialogue, said that "His [Zelaya's] campaign for changing the constitution has energized his support base of labour groups, farmers and civil organisations who have long felt marginalized in a country where a wealthy elite controls the media and much of politics."[41][dead link]

Other leaders of ALBA have successfully sought to eliminate their term limits. "The constitution had since 1980 been tweaked in other areas around thirty times, to the point where politicians of all camps were convinced that the document was no longer adequate. This is where the formal change proposed by Manuel Zelaya comes in: that in the November 2009 election-round, the voters will be presented with four ballot-boxes - the fourth one being used for a referendum on the question: "Do you agree with convening a constituent assembly to draw up a new constitution?" Most members of the political class have been in agreement with the idea - but most too are unhappy with the man promoting it; in great part because lurking behind the fourth ballot-box they see... Hugo Chávez's shadow. The pre-coup political atmosphere revealed the fluidity surrounding the project of launching an independent candidate and the fourth ballot-box proposal. The establishment media owned by the country's elite were quick to connect them, and to try to see evidence of Hugo Chávez's influence." According to analyst Raul Pineda Alvarado, Zelaya's attempt to modify constitution was a "carbon copy" of what has happened in Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua.Newt Gingrich wrote in the Washington Examiner that Chavez had used ALBA to create "a tide of incipient dictatorship" flowing out of Venezuela into other countries in Latin America. He noted that Chavez has subverted democracy in Venezuela to ensure his rule would be uncontested for decades, and "one-by-one, each of the members of ALBA have followed Chavez's lead and changed their constitutions to remove limits on the number of terms their presidents can serve."

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