Impatience grows in Honduras over stalled reporting of election results

Residents head to vote in a rural town a week after election day, in San Antonio de Flores

People stand in line to cast their votes, a week late in a special election, after the local governing party kept voting closed on election day, amid accusations of sabotage and fraud, in a presidential race still too close to call as counting continues, in San Antonio de Flores, Honduras, December 7, 2025. REUTERS/Leonel Estrada

Source: REUTERS

By Laura Garcia

Impatience grew in Honduras on Sunday as electoral officials failed to provide an update on the results of the November 30 national elections for over 48 hours, with the presidential race still far too close to call.

In the latest results released on Friday, 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."

On Sunday, Moncada demanded the elections be annulled and said the party was calling on its supporters to take part in marches, strikes, and sit-ins to protest what she has called election fraud.

The streets of Tegucigalpa, the capital, and other cities across Honduras have remained calm in the week since the election, as 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."

This article was produced by Reuters news agency. It has not been edited by Global South World.

By Reuters