🔗 Share this article

The moderate candidate in Honduras's knife-edge presidential election, Salvador Nasralla, has alleged "corrupt people" of tampering with the vote count in the country.

Nine days after the election, the election authority has still not declared a winner, but the most recent tally suggest that Nasry "Tito" Asfura, the conservative candidate endorsed by US President Donald Trump, holds a slim advantage.

Nasralla, who had been ahead in the initial stages before dropping into second place, declared on social media: "This is a robbery."

The progressive hopeful placed in third, Rixi Moncada, has demanded the vote to be invalidated and accused Trump of the election.

Close Results and Growing Frustration

With 98.77% of votes counted, Asfura had 40.53% of the vote, ahead of Nasralla with under forty percent and Moncada with just under twenty percent, according to the National Electoral Council's (CNE) update.

Patience has worn thin over the last week as the counting stalled several times, sometimes for days on end.

Representatives of the CNE blamed "IT issues."

They have also warned that numerous voting records with "irregularities" still need to be examined.

Trump's Backing and Controversial Pardon

The run-up to the election was overshadowed by Trump's endorsement of Nasry "Tito" Asfura.

Just days before the vote, Trump threw his weight behind the former mayor of Tegucigalpa, saying that "Tito and I can work together to fight the drug traffickers."

"We will be very supportive should Asfura win, but we will not be throwing good money after bad, because a poor choice can only bring catastrophic results," Trump added.

In a unexpected action 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 trafficking cocaine.

His clemency and freedom has stunned Honduran authorities, who issued an international arrest warrant for Hernández, who remains in the US.

Rising Tensions and Allegations of Interference

Meanwhile, the situation has grown more tense as the lead in the vote count changed a number of times.

Trump accused the CNE of "trying to change" the outcome when Nasralla overtook Asfura early on.

"They will face severe consequences," the US president said without offering proof of any fraud.

Since the moment 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 protest publicly against what it called "the interference and coercion of the President of the United States."

Nasralla blamed unnamed "bad actors" for "delaying the counting process."

Under Honduran law, the CNE has until 30 December to declare a winner.