Right-wing businessman Nasri Asfoura, with the support of US President Donald Trump, regained the lead in the vote count in Honduras’ presidential elections on Thursday, although he remains in a technical relationship with TV broadcaster Salvador Nasrallah.
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Asfoura, 67, from the National Party, was ahead on Sunday, the day of vote counting, but on Tuesday, after problems with the computerized system, Nasrallah, from the right-wing Liberal Party, overtook him.
After counting 86.76% of the votes, Asfoura leads with 40.24%, compared to 39.41% for Nasrallah, according to the National Electoral Council.
The National Electoral Council boycotted the publication of the data in the early hours of Monday, prompting Trump to threaten Honduras with “severe consequences” if it decided to “change the results.”
Service resumed the next day, but was interrupted again on Wednesday for three hours for system maintenance.
The head of the National Electoral Commission, Anna Paula Hall, explained that counting records that could not be sent on election day are included in the system. Special joints will include those that show discrepancies.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Landau asked for guarantees regarding the vote count, saying that democracy was “at stake.” “The eyes of the world, including ours, are trained on Honduras,” he warned.
In turn, Marlon Ochoa, representative of the left wing of the government in the National Electoral Council, repeated his accusation of alleged “fraud” in the vote counting, organized by councilors Hall, from the Liberal Party (PL), and Cosette Lopez, from the National Party (PN), “with the general support of Washington.” “We are facing a coup that seeks to violate and usurp popular sovereignty,” Ochoa said.
The fragmented vote count is keeping the poor Central American nation on alert, a country also plagued by violence linked to the drug trade, gangs and corruption.
Trump intervened in the final stage of the elections, encouraging Hondurans to vote for Asvora.
He also granted a pardon to former President Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), former leader of the National Party, who was sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking. Hernandez was released Monday.
The US President classified Nasrallah (72 years old) as a “semi-communist” because he held an important position in the current government of President Xiomara Castro. But the journalist, who left the leftist government last year, declares himself an admirer of the right-wing presidents of Argentina, Javier Miley, and El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.