Honduras' electoral body, under pressure from US President Donald Trump, vowed Tuesday its final tally of votes cast in a weekend presidential election would "scrupulously respect the popular will."
The US president, who backs one of two right-wing frontrunners, on Monday accused Honduran election officials of "trying to change" the outcome of the November 30 vote.
Trump had given his support to businessman Nasry Asfura, 67, and intervened in his favour even before the final outcome was known.
"Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election. If they do, there will be hell to pay!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform without providing proof of his accusation.
Honduras's National Electoral Council (CNE) called Monday for "patience" as it finalizes the vote count in one of Latin America's most impoverished and violent countries.
The final result could take days, even weeks, but the CNE said a partial electronic count showed Asfura leading 72-year-old rival Salvador Nasralla by just 515 votes, making it a "technical tie" – prompting Trump's threatening post.
On Tuesday, the CNE reported "technical problems" with the portal disseminating vote results, saying it had requested a full report and "the fastest possible" solution.
"The CNE is enabling public access... for the media and political parties so they can follow the processing of the information in real time," it said.
The council vowed to announce the final result within the legally required timeframe of one month, and said "the declaration of results will scrupulously respect the popular will expressed by the citizens in the exemplary voting process."
Trump has become increasingly vocal in his support for allies in the region, having threatened to cut aid to Argentina and Honduras if his picks did not win.
Trump's ally, Argentina's President Javier Milei, was victorious in recent midterm elections, and last week former Tegucigalpa mayor Asfura also won the Republican leader's backing.
Rival Nasralla told reporters on Monday that despite Trump's endorsement of Asfura, he was confident the election would go in his favor.
"I know I've already won. This morning, they sent me a figure that puts me ahead," he told reporters about the preliminary count.
Nasralla clarified in a social media post that "we are not declaring ourselves winners, we are just projecting the results."
Swing to the right
The election is a clear defeat for ruling leftists, and a swing to the right will likely boost US influence in a country that under the last government had increasingly looked to China.
The election campaign was dominated by Trump's threat and his surprise pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández of Asfura's Partido Nacional de Honduras.
Hernández was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States, where he had been accused of belonging to one of "the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world."
Convicted of helping to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, Hernández was released Tuesday despite Trump's stated commitment to eradicating Latin American drug trafficking.
Hernández's pardon came as a surprise, given Trump has made an ostensible war against Latin American drug-trafficking a cenrerpiece in his turbulent second term.
A large contingent of US military forces are deployed in the Caribbean to pressure Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro, whom the Trump administration has designated as part of a drug cartel.
US forces are regularly blowing up small boats alleged to be carrying drugs, despite international experts saying the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
Some Hondurans have welcomed Trump's election interventions, saying they hope it meant migrants will be allowed to remain in the United States.
Many Hondurans have fled north to escape grinding poverty and violence at home, including minors fearing forced recruitment by gangs.
This escape route has become more difficult since Trump's immigration crackdown, and nearly 30,000 Honduran migrants have been deported since his second term started in January.
The clampdown has dealt a severe blow to the country of 11 million people, where remittances accounted for 27 percent of GDP last year.
Hernández's pardon
Hernández, who is from the same party as Asfura, led the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022.
He was accused by US prosecutors of years-long efforts to aid drug cartels, including Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel – designated by the Trump administration this year as a terrorist organisation.
Hernández was extradited just weeks after leaving office, convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Trump said last week that Hernández "has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly."
Hernandez's wife Ana García de Hernández posted on social media that the release on Monday "was a day we will never forget."
"After almost four years of pain, waiting, and difficult trials, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández is once again a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump."
The pardon came under fire from US lawmakers.
"Trump is illegally blowing up boats in the Caribbean – supposedly to stop drugs coming into the US. Yet he pardons the former president of Honduras who was convicted of sending cocaine to the US," Democratic Senator Ed Markey posted on X.
"It doesn't make any sense. Whatever Trump is doing in Venezuela, it's not about drugs."
Senator Bill Cassidy, from Trump's Republican Party, also slammed Trump's move.
"Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States?" he asked on X.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday defended Trump, depicting Hernández as the victim of prosecutorial overreach under former US president Joe Biden.
"He was opposed to the values of the previous administration and they charged him because he was president of Honduras," Leavitt said.
– TIMES/AFP
by Henry Morales and Noe Leiva/AFP
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