Honduras Presidential Election Update!
Tegucigalpa, Dec 4 (EFE).-
Political tension in Honduras increased on Thursday following presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla’s denunciation of alleged irregularities in Sunday’s general election preliminary vote count.
Nasralla is a candidate for the conservative Liberal Party. His opponent, Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party, retook the lead in the scrutiny.
Following Nasralla’s statements, the businessman, the electoral body, and National Party leaders called for calm and prudence in the post-election process, which was marked by failures in the voting system and distrust of the results. Nasralla had previously unsuccessfully tried to reach the Honduran presidency in 2013 and 2017.
Nasralla posted on his social media that on early Thursday, there was a system blackout and that an “algorithm” would have modified the assignment of votes in favor of candidate Asfura, for which he asked to “investigate” the company in charge of the preliminary results portal.
“Salvador Nasralla’s 1,081,000 votes were given to Asfura, and Asfura’s 1,073,000 votes went to Nasralla,” the candidate told EFE. He also warned that EU and OAS observers are aware of his complaint.
But Nasralla explained that he “cannot” speak of fraud “as the entire recount process has not yet been decided.”
The trend in the preliminary results, registered between cuts in the system of the National Electoral Council (CNE), reversed again on Thursday: Asfura, who receives the support of United States President Donald Trump, retook the lead over Nasralla.
Both conservative candidates have been swapping places at the top of the preliminary count, corresponding to 86.32% of the tallied records, which gave Asfura 1,113,570 votes (40.25%) compared to 1,090,151 votes (39.40%) for Nasralla.
Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the ruling Libre party, remains in third place with 19% of the votes.
Call for “prudence” and “maturity.”
On Thursday, Cossette López-Osorio, one of the three counselors of the whole electoral body, called on politicians to “demonstrate maturity” and “rise to the level that this moment demands,” following Nasralla’s denunciation of the preliminary results.
Meanwhile, María Antonieta Mejía, the National Party’s candidate for vice president, rejected accusations of manipulation. She demanded “prudence” and said that any complaint should be documented and submitted to the proper authorities.
During the vote count, the private sector joined the call for “prudence and moderation,” urging politicians to avoid “premature, triumphalist, or confusing” statements, as these only contribute to “uncertainty and distrust” and can affect social peace in Honduras.
The Honduran Council of Private Enterprise urged the electoral authorities to “issue the official results” as soon as possible and pleaded to the responsibility of all sectors to “maintain an environment of peace and tranquility” in the country.
As of Thursday, a small group of Honduran peasants protested in front of the US Embassy against the pardon granted by Trump to former President Juan Orlando Hernández, released on Monday after being sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking in the US.
Hernández, 57, governed under the banner of the National Party of Honduras, to which Asfura belongs.EFE
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