Xiomara Orders Vote Recount!
Tegucigalpa, Jan 10 (EFE).-
Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Saturday asked the National Electoral Council (CNE), after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, to “immediately” begin a recount “of all the votes” of the general elections held Nov. 30, even though the electoral body has already declared the winners of the elections.
“We have given instructions for the National Congress (parliament) to send a note to the Council with a copy of the Gazette to initiate it immediately, otherwise it will be the National Congress that will carry out the scrutiny as established in the Constitution of the Republic, in Article 205, numeral 7,” Luis Redondo, president of the legislative branch, told the media.
“We are asking from the National Congress of the Republic, in a historic event, that all the votes of the 19,167 polling stations be counted and that whoever wins, no matter who the winner, is respected after the total scrutiny of the polling stations is completed. That the vote of all the Honduran people be respected,” emphasized Redondo, who participated in the meeting of the Council of Ministers.
On Friday, a minority group of lawmakers of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), in an extraordinary session of parliament, approved a proposal by Redondo on the counting all the votes.
The initiative was approved by the Honduran president and was published in the official newspaper Gazette (La Gaceta), a process that jurists, the opposition and analysts consider inappropriate because the CNE has already given an official declaration of the winners of the elections, in which the winning presidential candidate was Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura, of the conservative National Party.
More than 70 opposition lawmakers were not allowed to enter the legislative session, according to their own complaints.
Asfura, as established by law, must take office on Jan. 27, when Xiomara Castro’s term will end, who on Dec. 18 said that she would accept the results of the CNE.
All the electoral material is guarded by hundreds of soldiers and police officers.
Castro convened the session of the Council of Ministers after in a message addressed to US President Donald Trump, who three days before the elections announced his support for Asfura, asking him to hold “a direct and frank dialogue on the electoral process,” 17 days before the end of her term and after accusing the American of interfering in the elections.
“Mr. President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump: I respectfully invite you to hold a direct and frank dialogue on the electoral process in Honduras,” Castro said in a lengthy message on X.
In particular, “on his public pronouncements on the social network X in favor of citizen Nasry Asfura, which negatively influenced the development of the democratic process and affected our candidate,” she added.
“At the same time, I am addressing the Honduran people to explain the reasons why I passed Legislative Decree No. 58-2025, approved by 69 deputies of the National Congress, which reaffirms the sovereignty of Honduras and orders the National Electoral Council to count the votes and minutes of the elections held on 30 November,” the president said. EFE
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