MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vote count flips in Honduras after interruption

Nasralla (in the pic) is now slightly ahead of Asfura

Honduras' presidential race saw a lead change Tuesday as election officials resumed counting votes following accusations of US interference and the highly controversial pardon of a former Honduran president by Donald Trump.

Television host and right-wing candidate Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party (PL) has pulled ahead of former Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party (PN), whom Trump endorses.

With 67% of the ballots counted, the race remains deadlocked. Nasralla has 40.14% of the vote against Asfura's 39.69%. The leading candidates are just a few thousand votes apart.

Meanwhile, Rixi Moncada of the leftist ruling Libre party trails in a distant third place, reflecting what observers have called a “punishment vote” as the country plunged into violence and poverty since 2021 under Xiomara Castro.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) halted the count on Monday morning at the 57% mark, citing “technical problems” with the contracted results disclosure company. The pause drew immediate criticism and heightened fears of fraud, echoing controversies from the 2017 election.

The delay coincided with an unprecedented intervention by Donald Trump, who publicly endorsed Asfura and issued a stark warning to the Central American nation.

The Republican leader warned of “serious consequences” if Honduras attempted to “change the results” of the election, adding to a pre-election threat to cut aid should Asfura, whom Trump considers a “friend of freedom,” fail to win. Trump has publicly labeled Nasralla a “borderline communist.”

“The numbers are behind us, we are going to protect this victory, because that victory belongs to the people, and no one can take it away. We are going to win!” wrote Nasralla on social media

CNE Chairwoman Ana Paola Hall pledged that the vote count would “scrupulously respect the will of the people expressed” at the polls.

Also on Tuesday, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (“JOH”), an ally of Asfura and a member of the National Party, was released from a US prison on Tuesday after receiving a pardon from Trump. Hernández, who governed Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was sentenced to 45 years for trafficking drugs into the US.

Trump downplayed Hernández’s involvement in those crimes, saying he felt “very good,” insisting the pardon was about ending a case of “lawfare, a witch hunt.”