TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 15 (Reuters) – The head of Honduras’ National Electoral Council, Ana Paola Hall, said on Monday that protests in the capital Tegucigalpa have delayed the start of a special recount of some of the ballots from the contested November 30 presidential election.
Hundreds of supporters of the ruling leftist party LIBRE protested on Monday outside the building where ballots are being stored.
The protest prevented election workers from beginning a hand recount of some 15% of the tally sheets – representing hundreds of thousands of ballots – that are said to have “inconsistencies.”
In a post on X, Hall said the protest “prevented the necessary conditions for the special recount to begin.”
It’s the latest delay of the vote-tallying process as Honduras remains in a state of political paralysis more than two weeks after the nationwide election.
Former President Mel Zelaya, the husband of current president Xiomara Castro, called for supporters of the ruling LIBRE party to also protest on Monday and to demand a hand recount of every ballot from the contested election.
The latest preliminary results show conservative National Party’s Nasry Asfura in the lead with 40.54% of the vote, about 43,000 votes ahead of the center-right Liberal Party’s Salvador Nasralla, who has 39.19% of the vote.
Trailing far behind in third place with 19.29% of the vote is Rixi Moncada, of the ruling leftist LIBRE party.
The tally sheets to be reviewed in the special hand count could easily flip the result standings of the two frontrunners, Asfura and Nasralla.
While voting on election day itself was calm, the subsequent process of tallying and reporting the ballots has been marred by chaos and confusion, including technical failures and political infighting.
The Honduran election has also been marred by outside interference, particularly from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threw his weight behind Asfura, threatened to withhold money from Honduras if another candidate were elected, and then claimed election fraud, without presenting any evidence.
(Reporting by Laura Garcia and Diego Ore in Mexico City; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Bill Berkrot)
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