Protests in Honduras staged by members of the ruling socialist Libre party this week against the nation’s electoral authorities left at least eight injured, further delaying the slow vote counting process of the November presidential election.
The protesters, much like current socialist President Xiomara Castro, claim that “fraud” was allegedly committed in the yet-to-be finalized results despite international observers stating that they found no evidence of fraud. The National Electoral Council (CNE) attributed new delays in the counting process to the protests, which have continued as of early Wednesday morning.
The Central American nation has spent two weeks without final vote results from the CNE that can officially determine who won the election. The last public update, dated December 9, reportedly indicates that, with 99 percent of all votes counted, Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party of Honduras (PNH) is narrowly winning the election, with a roughly 42,000-vote lead against former vice president Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party. Former Defense Minister Rixi Moncada, representing the ruling Libre party, is at a distant third place with 19.29 percent of the votes.
Mondaca, the Libre party, and President Castro have repeatedly rejected every preliminary result released by CNE so far — all of which have indicated that Moncada has no mathematical path to victory and the election will ultimately be a razor-thin race between Asfura and Nasralla. The ruling socialists claim that “fraud” was allegedly committed and will thus not recognize any results issued by the CNE because a “coup” is being orchestrated against the government. The ruling socialists also accused President Donald Trump of “interfering” in the election by giving his endorsement to Asfura.
On Monday, a group of members of the ruling Libre party staged a series of riots across the capital city of Tegucigalpa, blocking one of its main highways and, in some instances, blocking access to CNE logistical centers.
The protest occurred days after socialist former president — and husband to current President Castro — Manuel Zelaya, in his capacity as general coordinator of the ruling Libre party, told followers of the socialist party that “we have to take to the streets to support those who are protesting so that all these fraudulent processes are annulled.”
According to international outlets, Honduran police dispersed a “peaceful” protest on Monday night staged by members of the Libre party outside an electoral storage facility. Throughout the five-hour-long protest, Libre members reportedly burned tires and blocked a section of the boulevard in front of the electoral center.
The protesters alleged that they arrived outside the center responding to a “peaceful” mobilization call issued by former President Zelaya. President Castro condemned the police actions that successfully dispersed the “peaceful” protest.
CNE head Ana Paola Hall said on Monday that the protest further delayed the start of a special review process the electoral authority intends to perform on 2,773 minutes flagged with “inconsistencies.” The minutes reportedly amount to 15 percent of all votes cast.
The special process was originally intended to begin on Sunday, but has not started at press time. In addition to the protest, CNE attributed other delays to Libre’s representative at the institution, Marlon Ochoa, who refuses to sign the authorization required and, on behalf of Libre, is demanding a full recount.
Despite the socialist government’s “fraud” accusations, international observers from both the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union have both stated that their representatives had “not observed any serious irregularities that could affect the current preliminary results,” but lodged criticism over the extensive and ongoing delays in the counting process.
“We have observed significant delays in processing the results, but no evidence that would cause us to doubt their validity,” Eladio Loizaga, head of OAS’s electoral mission to Honduras, said on Monday.
CNE attributed the initial wave of delays in the vote counting process to “technical difficulties” experienced by service providers. Loizaga pointed out on Monday that although such technological solutions can be useful for streamlining the vote-counting process, it is the physical tallies that contain records of the results.
An unnamed U.S. State Department spokesperson reportedly told AFP last week that “there is no credible evidence” to suggest the election should be annulled and urged “all parties to respect the independence of electoral institutions.”
“The will of the Honduran people was a repudiation of the Libre party’s administration,” the State Department spokesperson told AFP on condition of anonymity. “The elections were closely monitored by the OAS, the EU, and national observers,”
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