The recent presidential election in Honduras has seen conservative candidate Nasri Asufura taking the lead with approximately 8,800 votes ahead of Liberal contender Salvador Nasrallah, as of Thursday morning.
As the National Electoral Commission (CNE) begins the slow process of counting votes starting Sunday, uncertainty surrounds the election, which is set for 2025.
Current results from the CNE indicate that with 85 percent of the votes counted, Asufura of the Honduras National Party (PNH) leads with 40.06 percent, while Nasrallah of the Liberal Party holds 39.74 percent—just 8,815 votes apart.
Third place goes to Rixie Moncada from the ruling Socialist Libre party, who has garnered 19.18 percent, making her chances of victory quite slim in this tightly contested race.
Asufura, a former mayor who received endorsement from President Donald Trump, regained his leading position early Thursday following updates from the CNE. The delays in vote counting have led to a back-and-forth between Asufura and Nasrallah over the past several days.
On Thursday, Nasrallah expressed concerns when results went “black” early in the morning, claiming an “algorithm” had manipulated the numbers. He alleged his votes were wrongly attributed to Asufura and vice versa, calling for an investigation into the companies managing the vote transmission. So far, he hasn’t presented public proof for these claims.
As the situation in Honduras unfolds, concerns have been raised about the electoral process, with Trump warning on Truth Social that any alteration in outcomes could have severe consequences. At one point, the gap between Asufura and Nasrallah was merely 515 votes. The CNE has up to 30 days to announce the official results.
The counting process faced delays again on Wednesday, attributed to “maintenance” carried out by the company in charge of the reporting system, according to CNE Secretary Anna Paula Hall. She stated that maintenance was done without the full board’s consultation.
Hall emphasized, “This process is too costly for Hondurans to allow this to happen,” assuring the public that they would continue to provide updates.
In a statement on Tuesday, the CNE attributed the delays to “technical issues” with the online vote tally reporting system. To ensure transparency, they set up a monitored space for party representatives, media, and observers during the slow counting.
With Moncada expected to finish third no matter the outcome, her accusations against Trump involve claims of “election fraud and interference” due to his support for Asufura.
Last week, Trump publicly backed Asufura, while Moncada controversially praised Fidel Castro in a Truth Social post. Trump referred to Nasrallah as a “marginal communist,” highlighting his history with Honduras’ socialist administration.
In response to Trump’s statements, Moncada remarked, “The Honduran people who know me are furious at his interference, but they are always on my side.”
