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The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras called for \u201cpatience\u201d on Tuesday as it launched a manual count of votes in one of the closest presidential elections the country has seen in more than a decade \u2013 a contest over which US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off aid to the country.<\/p>\n
Vote counting has been held up by technical difficulties with the results website. As of the latest count in the November 30 election, right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura was said to be holding a narrow lead, though the race remains effectively a \u201ctechnical tie\u201d and no official winner has yet been declared.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Trump has publicly endorsed Asfura and threatened to cut off United States aid to Honduras if his preferred candidate does not win. He has also accused CNE of \u201ctrying to change\u201d the outcome by calling a \u201ctechnical tie\u201d at this stage, and doubled down on vague threats of retaliation in posts published on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n Observers claim this is the latest example of Trump\u2019s attempts to meddle with the internal affairs of other countries \u2013 several of which are in South America.<\/p>\n Asfura, 67, from the right-wing National Party of Honduras, has campaigned on a promise of economic stability, foreign investment and a tougher security stance.<\/p>\n Trump has thrown his support behind Asfura, calling him the \u201conly real friend of Freedom in Honduras\u201d in a Truth Social post and urging people to vote for him.<\/p>\n Asfura\u2019s main rival, 72-year-old Salvador Nasralla, is running under the Liberal Party banner and positions himself as a centrist reformer focused on restoring the rule of law and on battling corruption.<\/p>\n The candidate for the left-wing ruling party, Liberty and Refoundation, Rixi Moncada, presents herself as the defender of President Xiomara Castro\u2019s left-leaning legacy.<\/p>\n Moncada, 60, has proposed \u201cdemocratising the economy\u201d by expanding credit, strengthening national production, and building an economic model that generates \u201creal opportunities for everyone\u201d. She has also proposed changes to the Constitution to underpin a judicial overhaul in an effort to battle corruption.<\/p>\n \u201cOur fight against corruption is head-on and without fear. To reform the justice system, there is only one way: to have a majority in Congress,\u201d Moncada said during the campaign.<\/p>\n Throughout the campaign, polling has suggested a fragmented electorate with no clear favourite, setting the stage for the tight count now unfolding.<\/p>\n Trump pledged that there would be \u201chell to pay\u201d in Honduras if election officials tampered with the results of the vote. He has threatened to cut off US aid to the country if his favoured, right-wing candidate does not win.<\/p>\n Trump has not specified the precise aid he would suspend, but the US provides Honduras, which has a population of around 11 million, with a substantial package of economic, development and security assistance each year.<\/p>\n The US president has also shown favour to Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras and member of the country\u2019s right-wing National Party, by pardoning his US drug conviction and releasing him from a 45-year jail sentence. On Monday, Hernandez was released from the high-security facility of USP Hazelton in West Virginia in the US.<\/p>\n He was extradited to the US in 2022 and was found guilty of conspiring to import cocaine to the US, and of possessing machine guns, in 2024. Justifying his decision to pardon him, Trump said Hernandez had been \u201ctreated very harshly and unfairly\u201d in a social media post on Friday.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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