TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Nasry Asfura, the Conservative Nationwide Celebration candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, leads Honduras’ presidential election with simply over 40% of votes counted, preliminary outcomes confirmed on Monday.
A former mayor of Tegucigalpa, 67-year-old Asfura had 41% of the votes counted to this point. The preliminary outcomes confirmed Liberal Celebration candidate Salvador Nasralla in second place with about 39%. Rixi Moncada, of the ruling LIBRE celebration, had 20%, and was in third place.
Whichever candidate wins a easy majority will govern the nation between 2026 and 2030.
Within the run-up, Trump weighed in on the tightly contested race to throw his help behind Asfura in a collection of social media posts, saying he can work with him to counter drug trafficking and that “if he doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad.”
On Friday, Trump additionally stated he’ll grant a pardon to former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who’s serving a 45-year jail sentence within the U.S. for drug trafficking and firearms expenses. Hernandez, who led Honduras from 2014-2022, was additionally of the Nationwide Celebration.
Each Asfura and Nasralla have stated they might resume diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which have been severed in 2023. Such a transfer would mark the most important diplomatic setback for China within the area for many years.
Sunday’s vote, during which the 128 members of Congress, tons of of mayors, and hundreds of different public officers are additionally being chosen, befell in a extremely polarized local weather, with the three high candidates hurling accusations of attainable fraud. Moncada has advised she wouldn’t acknowledge the official outcomes.
Most polls confirmed a digital tie between the three candidates heading into election day. The Group of American States expressed considerations concerning the electoral course of, and nearly all of its members in a rare session final week known as for the federal government of outgoing President Xiomara Castro to conduct elections freed from intimidation, fraud and political interference.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau additionally warned the U.S. will reply “swiftly and decisively to anyone who undermines the integrity of the democratic process in Honduras.”
On Sunday, some annoyed voters and electoral observers denounced officers for turning away residents nonetheless ready to vote. The Nationwide Electoral Council (CNE) had prolonged polling station hours till 6 p.m. (2400 GMT) and gave particular person voting stations the authority to stay open a further hour. Nevertheless, some places appeared to shut whereas voters have been nonetheless ready.
Mistrust Of Electoral Course of
Honduras, the place six out of each 10 residents dwell in poverty, suffered a coup in 2009 when an alliance of right-wing army figures, politicians and businessmen overthrew Manuel Zelaya, the husband of the present president. In 2021, Hondurans voted massively for Castro, ending greater than a century of rule by the Nationwide and Liberal events.
Honduras’ Legal professional Normal’s Workplace, aligned with the ruling celebration, has accused the opposition events of planning to commit voter fraud, a declare they deny. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into audio recordings that allegedly present a high-ranking Nationwide Celebration politician discussing plans with an unidentified army officer to affect the election. The alleged recordings, which the Nationwide Celebration says have been created utilizing synthetic intelligence, have been central to Moncada’s marketing campaign.
The Honduran army has additionally come beneath criticism for asking the Nationwide Election Council to provide it copies of the tally sheets on election day, which is a violation of Honduran regulation.
These tensions contributed to a rising public mistrust of the electoral authorities and the electoral course of normally.
Lucas Aguayo/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Castro, the primary lady to control Honduras, elevated public funding and social spending. The financial system has grown reasonably, and poverty and inequality have decreased, though each stay excessive. The Worldwide Financial Fund has praised her authorities’s prudent fiscal administration.
The nation’s murder price has additionally fallen to its lowest degree in current historical past, however violence persists. Human rights teams have criticized Castro for sustaining a protracted state of emergency in components of Honduras and for persevering with to depend on the army for policing, the method of her predecessor Hernandez.
(Reporting by Laura Garcia in Tegucigalpa; Leila Miller in Buenos Aires; Diego Ore in Mexico Metropolis; enhancing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Lincoln Feast)
