By Laura Garcia
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Election results in Honduras had not been updated for over 24 hours on Wednesday as protests broke out in the capital after calls for the vote to be annulled by the president, alleging fraud, stretching uncertainty in the impoverished Central American nation into its 11th day.
The latest results, released on Tuesday morning, showed Nasry Asfura of the National Party leading his centrist rival Salvador Nasralla by some 40,000 votes, with more than 99% of the ballots counted. But there has been no update to the figures since, leaving the country in a state of suspense and frustration.
On Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators dressed in red, the color of the ruling leftist LIBRE party, blocked a bridge that connects Tegucigalpa with the neighboring city of Comayagüela.
They said they were calling for a re-do of the elections, which have been marred by a chaotic results reporting process and repeated interventions by U.S. President Donald Trump, who told voters not to cast ballots for the ruling party’s candidate, Rixi Moncada, and threw his weight behind the conservative candidate Asfura.
Trump also pardoned former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, of Asfura’s National Party. Hernandez had been serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking and weapons charges in the U.S.
“We don’t want interference from Donald Trump. We don’t want interference from the U.S. embassy, we want justice,” said a protester who identified himself as an employee of the state water company SANAA. “We want these elections to be annulled and held again,” he added.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro of the LIBRE party denounced the situation as an “electoral coup” on Tuesday. Her husband and former President Manuel Zelaya called on supporters to protest outside the government office in Tegucigalpa where the tally sheets are being held.
Zelaya also appeared to throw his support behind Nasralla, writing on social media on Tuesday night that according to his party’s “own national count of presidential tally sheets, sheet by sheet, the winner of the presidency is Salvador Nasralla.”
Nasralla has repeatedly denounced irregularities in the count and said he has won the election.
The electoral mission of the Organization of American States called for speeding up the count and maximizing transparency. “It is essential that the CNE can carry out its work without pressure,” it said on Tuesday, referring to the Honduran electoral body.
“The OAS mission rejects any call to disturb public order that could compromise the remaining stages of the electoral process,” the organization wrote on social media.
INCONSISTENT TALLY SHEETS UNDER REVIEW
The most recent results showed Asfura with 40.52% of the vote, Nasralla with 39.20% and Moncada trailing far behind with 19.29%.
Approximately 14.5% of the tally sheets showed inconsistencies and are to be reviewed in a special scrutiny that is expected to begin in the coming hours.
These tally sheets could contain hundreds of thousands of votes, more than enough to change the outcome of the election. Honduras’ electoral body has until December 30 to declare the winner, who will then assume the presidency in January for the 2026-2030 term.
The prolonged and chaotic process of reporting the election results has created mounting tension in the country, where previous contested elections, such as in 2017, have led to mass protests and deaths.
The November 30 vote proceeded calmly, according to independent electoral observers. However, the subsequent release of results has been chaotic, with delays that have intensified frustration over the tight race.
CNE members have blamed the company behind the tabulation platform for the slow vote count.
(Reporting by Laura Garcia in Tegucigalpa and Diego Ore in Mexico City; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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