The electoral process in Honduras entered a phase of maximum tension after the request of the Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), in power, to administratively cancel the elections carried out in the 19,167 polling stations (JRV) during the general elections on November 30.
The petition, presented almost at midnight on Friday by LIBRE’s legal representative, Edson Javier Argueta Palma, argues a “disaster” in the Transmission of Preliminary Results (TREP) system.
In this sense, he points out that the definitive scrutiny would have “adulterated” the popular willreported cnn.
LIBRE also requested to invalidate the vote for deputies to the Central American Parliament, which is defined according to the presidential vote.
In the midst of the growing controversy over the slowness of the count, the National Electoral Council (CNE) extended until December 8 the deadline to present annulment actions, and until December 15 the date to request reviews of minutes and recounts.
Electoral crisis in Honduras
According to the latest update from the CNE, the nationalist candidate Nasry Asfura leads the count with 40.19%followed by Salvador Nasralla, of the Liberal Party, with 39.49%.
The ruling party Rixi Moncada is in third place with 19.30%. So far, 88.02% of the minutes have been processed, he indicated cnn.
In parallel, the crisis escalated after a decision considered unprecedented: Attorney General Johel Zelaya ordered the opening of an urgent investigation into alleged crimes of hacking and massive fraudas reported by several agencies.
The order instructed the Technical Criminal Investigation Agency (ATIC) to enter the CNE to secure and clone all documentary and digital evidence related to the election.
Zelaya justified the intervention by stating that the electoral advisors “are not responding to the interests of Honduras” and warned that “any attack against the popular will” will not be allowed.
Electoral turn in Honduras: the right prevails and the official left is relegated
From the CNE itself, Judge Marlon Ochoa raised the seriousness of the complaints to ensure that the TREP system was hacked and that 86.6% of the minutes present inconsistencies, which would be equivalent to more than 982 thousand votes without valid biometric support.
According to Ochoa, these failures deprive the process of legal certainty and compromise the presidential and legislative results.
CNE talks about electoral manipulation
The advisor described the manipulation as “unprecedented” in the region and accused the international community of ignoring the alleged intervention of US President Donald Trump, who publicly called for a vote for Asfura.
Ochoa also criticized the electoral observation missions and maintained that their preliminary reports “ignore the elephant in the room,” by omitting any reference to this alleged interference, which in his opinion contravenes the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
