Honduran TV presenter Salvador Nasralla widened a narrow lead Wednesday over Trump-backed rival Nasry Asfura as the counting of votes cast in a weekend presidential election dragged into a third day.
With nearly 80 percent of the count from Sunday’s voting completed, Nasralla was leading fellow right-winger Asfura with 40.34 percent to 39.57 percent, according to the CNE election council. However, the result was still too early to call.
The CNE has come under fire from US President Donald Trump after announcing Monday that a partial count showed the two men locked in a “technical tie.”
Trump accused Honduran election officials of “trying to change” the outcome of the vote in one of Latin America’s most impoverished and violent countries and vowed on social media “there will be hell to pay!” if they do.
The CNE called for “patience” as it finishes the count delayed by technical difficulties, and has vowed the end result will “scrupulously respect the popular will.”
Honduran presidential elections are determined in one round, with a simple majority needed to win.
CNE president Ana Paola Hall said Wednesday a manual recount was underway and inconsistencies in the records were being reviewed to ensure the most accurate result possible.
Ballots are still arriving from remote areas -- some only accessible by donkey or river boats -- and the declaration of a winner may still be days away.
The CNE, which has frequently been accused by parties of political favoritism, legally has one month to announce a winner.
“It’s disrespectful to all Hondurans who went to vote,” law student Katherin Matias, 21, told AFP in Tegucigalpa.
“Now they come out saying there are issues with the system. To me, it seems like there’s something fishy going on,” she said.
Trump supports 67-year-old businessman Asfura, vying for the top job with 72-year-old Nasralla, who the US leader has said was merely “pretending to be an anti-communist.”
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.
President Javier Milei, a close Trump ally, was victorious in Argentina’s mid-term elections.
Whatever the outcome in Honduras, Sunday’s election was a clear defeat for ruling leftists, and the country’s swing to the right will likely boost US influence in a country that under the last government had increasingly looked to China.
Trump has granted a pardon to Juan Orlando Hernandez, a former president from Asfura’s National Party who had been serving a 45-year sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.
The 57-year-old lawyer was released Monday in what was widely perceived as more interference.
In a four-page letter to Trump, published by US media on Wednesday, Hernandez told the US leader: “Just as you, President Trump, I have suffered political persecution.”
Hernandez’s wife Ana Garcia told AFP he would not be returning home immediately due to security fears.
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