Presidential Contender Alleges Election Has Been 'Rigged'
The centrist candidate in Honduras's knife-edge presidential election, Salvador Nasralla, has accused "unscrupulous individuals" of tampering with the vote count in the country.
Nine days after the election, the election authority has yet to announce a winner, but the most recent tally suggest that Nasry "Tito" Asfura, the conservative candidate endorsed by US President Donald Trump, holds a narrow lead.
Nasralla, who had been ahead in the initial stages before falling to second place, declared on social media: "This is theft."
The progressive hopeful trailing in third, Rixi Moncada, has demanded the vote to be annulled and alleged US interference by Trump in the election.
Close Results and Growing Frustration
With the vast majority of votes counted, Asfura had just over forty percent of the vote, leading Nasralla with 39.16% and Moncada with just under twenty percent, per the election body's update.
Frustration has been growing over the last week as the counting stalled several times, sometimes for extended periods.
Representatives of the CNE attributed the delays to "technical problems."
They have also warned that numerous voting records with "inconsistencies" still need to be examined.
Trump's Endorsement and Controversial Pardon
The period preceding the election was overshadowed by Trump's support for Nasry "Tito" Asfura.
Just days before the vote, Trump backed the former mayor of Tegucigalpa, stating that "Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists."
"Our support will be strong should Asfura win, but the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results," Trump added.
In a surprise move two days before the election, Trump also granted clemency to jailed former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is from the same party as Asfura.
Hernández was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US for conspiring to import cocaine.
His clemency and freedom has stunned Honduran authorities, who have issued an international arrest warrant for Hernández, who is still in the US.
Rising Tensions and Claims of Meddling
Meanwhile, the situation has grown more tense as the lead in the vote count changed a number of times.
Trump claimed the CNE of "trying to change" the outcome when Nasralla overtook Asfura early on.
"If they do, there will be hell to pay," the US president said without providing evidence of any fraud.
Ever since the Trump-endorsed Asfura took the lead, it has been his two rivals crying foul.
Rixi Moncada's Libre party called for the "the total annulment" of the elections.
It also urged its supporters to take to the streets against what it called "the interference and coercion of the President of the United States."
Nasralla blamed unnamed "corrupt ones" for "delaying the counting process."
Under Honduran law, the CNE has until 30 December to declare a winner.
