A committee of the Honduran Congress declared this Wednesday (10) its intention to reject the results, not yet official, of the presidential election of November 30. The commission speaks of an “electoral coup” and accuses US President Donald Trump of interference in the election. President Xiomara Castro of the ruling Free Party also made accusations of fraud. The country must carry out a special recount to resolve irregularities in voting records, according to an announcement from electoral body employee Cossette López-Osorio this Thursday (11).
In an interview with a local radio, Cosette said that the process could begin this Friday (12). The election remains undefined and protests are already breaking out in the capital, Tegucigalpa.
With more than 99% of the ballots counted, right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura, candidate of the National Party supported by Trump, is ahead of his Liberal Party rival, center-right Salvador Nasralla, by around 40,000 votes, or 40.52% against 39.2%.
The government candidate, Rixi Moncada, appears far in third position, with 19.29%,
Around 2,700 reports, or around 15% of the total, contain inconsistencies that require further review. These records contain enough votes to change the outcome of the election, thereby increasing political tension.
The OAS (Organization of American States) electoral mission called for the count to be accelerated and for there to be more transparency. “I hope that in three days we will be able to publish the verifications related to the presidential election,” López-Osorio said.
The elections were marked by a chaotic process of publishing results and interference by Trump. The US president threatened to cut aid to the country if his candidate was not elected and pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in the United States.
The head of the country’s armed forces, Roosevelt Hernández, also said Wednesday that the military would guarantee the transfer of power to whoever wins the election. It is the same institution that led several coups d’état in the country, the most recent, in 2009, against Manuel Zelaya, husband of the current president.
Washington said it was closely monitoring the investigation and warned it would respond to any irregularities “quickly and decisively.”
Honduras’ electorate has until December 30 to declare the winner, who will then assume the presidency in January for the 2026 to 2030 term.
Members of the National Electoral Council blamed the slow vote count on the company responsible for the tabulation platform.
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