Honduran Contender Alleges Election Has Been 'Manipulated'
The centrist candidate in Honduras's knife-edge presidential election, Salvador Nasralla, has alleged "unscrupulous individuals" of manipulating the vote count in the Central American nation.
Nine days after the election, the electoral council has yet to announce a winner, but the most recent tally suggest that Nasry "Tito" Asfura, the conservative candidate backed by US President Donald Trump, holds a narrow lead.
Nasralla, who had been leading earlier on before dropping into second place, declared on social media: "This is a robbery."
The left-wing candidate placed in third, Rixi Moncada, has called for the vote to be invalidated and accused Trump of the election.
Narrow Results and Growing Frustration
With the vast majority of votes counted, Asfura had 40.53% of the vote, leading Nasralla with under forty percent and Moncada with just under twenty percent, per the National Electoral Council's (CNE) update.
Frustration has been growing over the last week as the counting stalled several times, sometimes for days on end.
Officials from the CNE blamed "technical problems."
They have also cautioned that numerous voting records with "irregularities" still need to be reviewed.
Trump's Endorsement and Controversial Pardon
The run-up to the election was overshadowed by Trump's endorsement of Nasry "Tito" Asfura.
Shortly before the vote, Trump backed the former mayor of Tegucigalpa, stating that "We can work together to fight the drug traffickers."
"We will be very supportive should Asfura win, but we will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results," Trump added.
In a unexpected action two days before the election, Trump also granted clemency to jailed former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is from the same party as Asfura.
Hernández was in the midst of a 45-year prison sentence in the US for conspiring to import cocaine.
His pardon and subsequent release has shocked Honduran authorities, who have issued an international arrest warrant for Hernández, who is still in the US.
Rising Tensions and Allegations of Interference
Meanwhile, the situation has grown more tense as the lead in the vote count changed a number of times.
Trump accused the CNE of "seeking to alter" the outcome when Nasralla pulled past Asfura early on.
"If they do, there will be hell to pay," the US president said without providing evidence of any fraud.
Ever since the Trump-endorsed Asfura took the lead, it has been his two rivals alleging misconduct.
Rixi Moncada's Libre party called for the "complete cancellation" of the elections.
It also called on its supporters to protest publicly against what it called "the interference and coercion of the President of the United States."
Nasralla blamed unnamed "corrupt ones" for "holding up the counting process."
Under Honduran law, the CNE has until 30 December to declare a winner.