The army will guarantee the transfer of power to whoever wins the presidential elections in Honduras, said this Wednesday (10) the head of the country’s armed forces, Roosevelt Hernández, amid allegations of fraud in the count, which is advancing at a slow pace.
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, Xiomara Castro. “We have been clear, we have already said that we will support and recognize all the results,” the chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, close to the current government, told the Televicentro channel.
The latest results of the November 30 elections were published on Tuesday morning (9), when more than 99% of the votes had already been counted.
At that point, Nasry Asfura, the National Party candidate backed by Donald Trump, was ahead of his Liberal Party rival, centrist Salvador Nasralla, by about 40,000 votes — the former with 40.52 percent of the vote and the latter with 39.20 percent. The government candidate, Rixi Moncada, with 19.29%, appears far in third position.
Since then, however, the figures have not been updated, extending uncertainty in the Central American country into its 11th day and sparking protests in the capital.
Hundreds of demonstrators dressed in red, the color of the ruling left-wing Free party, blocked a bridge that connects Tegucigalpa to the neighboring town of Comayagüela on Wednesday, after Xiomara echoed Nasralla and Rixi in declaring on Tuesday that there had been a “falsification of the results”.
“We are experiencing a process marked by threats, coercion, manipulation of the system of preliminary results and the alteration of popular will. These actions constitute an electoral coup in progress,” she declared, adding that she would lodge a complaint with international authorities.
Her husband and former president then called on his supporters to demonstrate in front of the government office in Tegucigalpa, where the count records are kept. Zelaya also appeared to lend support to Nasralla, writing on social media late Tuesday that, according to his own party’s minute count, “the winner of the presidency is Salvador Nasralla.”
Despite the accusations, the election was marked by a chaotic process of publishing results and repeated interventions by Trump. The US president threatened to cut off aid to the country if his candidate was not elected and pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández. A supporter of Asfura, the politician was serving a 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in the United States.
The OAS (Organization of American States) electoral mission called for speeding up the count and maximizing transparency.
“It is essential that the CNE can carry out its work without pressure,” he said on Tuesday, referring to the National Electoral Council. “The OAS mission rejects any calls aimed at disturbing public order that could compromise the remaining stages of the electoral process.”
The final results of the investigation could take some time. In the coming hours, around 14.5% of the counting reports, or around 2,700 documents, which present inconsistencies will be examined during a special examination.
These counting records can contain hundreds of thousands of votes, more than enough to change the outcome of the election. Honduras’ electorate has until December 30 to declare the winner, who will then assume the presidency in January for the 2026 to 2030 term.
CNE members blamed the slow vote counting on the company responsible for the tabulation platform.
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