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.
Honduran electoral authorities on Tuesday agreed to opposition demands for a recount of returns from more than 5,000 polling places, representing almost 30% of all voting sites in last week’s disputed presidential election.
Honduran TV star turned opposition candidate called on Sunday on the country's military to rebel from enforcing a curfew that was imposed after deadly protests followed last week's disputed presidential vote.
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%.