“Since President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales has not been restored, we immediately announce the call for an extraordinary national assembly of the party to define our withdrawal from the electoral process,” Cesar Ham’s statement read.

Ham said the board of his party “will decide upon the withdrawal from the electoral process, since there are no guarantees for the development of a free, transparent, and democratic election if democracy is not restored in the country.”

Additionally the presidential candidates for the National Party, Liberal, Christian Democrat, and Innovation and Unity were called upon to “instruct their blocs of deputies, and deputies in the Congress, to immediately repeal the unconstitutional decree by which the presidency of the Republic went to Mr. Roberto Micheletti Bain.

“The Honduran people are standing and fighting against a dictatorship that represses it, has closed the media, and has kidnapped the Constitutional President of the Republic,” he added.

The parties should not participate in the forthcoming general election because “the electoral process has no international observation”, which puts it at a disadvantage, and that elected officials will not be recognized by the rest of the world, he believes.

A Judge of the TSE, Dennis Gomez, said that whatever decision they make (the directors of UD), they must make it soon, because the printing of ballots is taking place this week, and they would have to understand the consequences of withdrawing from the process.

The secretary of the TSE, Enrique Ortez Sequeira, said that the election process will not stop, and that they are taking care of the details to guarantee the transparency of the elections.

The UD Party, along with Independent Carlos H. Retyes, have supported former President Manuel Zelaya, and had already expressed the position to withdraw from the process if he is not returned to power.