By Laura Garcia
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – In Honduras, impatience is growing as Honduran electoral officials have failed to provide an update on the results of the November 30 national elections for nearly 48 hours, with the presidential race still far too close to call.
In the latest results released on Friday afternoon, Nasry Asfura of the National Party led with 40.19%, less than 20,000 votes ahead of centrist rival Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, who stood at 39.49%, with 88% of ballots tallied. Rixi Moncada of the ruling leftist LIBRE Party trailed far behind with 19.30%. Some 14% of ballots showed inconsistencies, officials said, and would be reviewed.
There have been no updates to these results over the weekend, testing residents’ patience as the presidency hangs in the balance.
“It’s frustrating,” said Gabriela Osorio, a dentist who voted in Siguatepeque, a small town in central Honduras. “The vote count hasn’t changed in days, and now it’s been a week since the election and we still don’t know anything.”
The streets of Tegucigalpa, the capital, and other cities across Honduras have remained calm, as electoral officials have pleaded for patience. But residents say that the delays have undermined their already fragile trust in the country’s electoral body, the CNE.
“Honestly, I don’t trust the CNE,” said college student Josue Lainez, who voted in Tegucigalpa last weekend. “I want to believe in the country’s democratic process… but deep down I’m always worried about fraud.”
Voting on November 30 was calm and peaceful, according to independent electoral observers. But the subsequent reporting of the results has been chaotic, marred by starts and stops that have intensified frustrations over the tight race.
Members of the electoral council have blamed the company behind the tabulating platform for pauses in the vote count.
On Friday, the Organization of American States’ electoral mission to Honduras called for the tallying process to be “expedited.”
(Reporting by Laura Garcia in Honduras; Writing by Gottesdiener in Monterrey, Mexico; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
