Honduras’ electoral tribunal on Sunday declared conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez the official winner of the Nov. 26 presidential election, sparking fraud accusations and calls for renewed street protests after a bitterly disputed contest. Hernandez beat center-left challenger and TV star Salvador Nasralla by 1.53 percentage points, according to the official count.
The challenger in Honduras' still unresolved presidential election has filed a challenge to the November 26 contest that seeks to annul the results and requests a recount. Salvador Nasralla, candidate of the opposition alliance, and his campaign team handed over the paperwork with just minutes to spare before a midnight deadline on Friday.
Early results from Honduras' presidential election on Monday showed leftist challenger Salvador Nasralla with a surprise lead over incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez. David Matamoros, president of the electoral court, announced that, with 57% of the vote counted, Nasralla is polling 45.7% of the vote, to Hernandez' 40.2%.
Both leading presidential candidates in crime-wracked Honduras declared victory late Sunday, setting the stage for a possible round of street protests and violence in one the world's deadliest countries. With more than half the votes counted, conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez was ahead with 34% against 29% for populist Xiomara Castro.
Four years after her husband was ousted in a coup, Honduran populist presidential candidate Xiomara Castro is threatening to break the century-old dominance of right-wing parties in Sunday's elections.