Honduras Issues 1st Official Election Result, Incumbent in Lead

Honduras Issues 1st Official Election Result, Incumbent in Lead
Fecha de publicación: 
4 December 2017
0
Imagen principal: 

According to the first official results, the National Party won 42.98 percent of the votes while the Opposition Alliance won 41.39 percent.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Honduras David Matamoros Batson has issued the first official results from the elections that took place on Nov. 26.

RELATED: Opposition Protests To Continue Amid Curfew, Police Repression

According to the results issued by the electoral body, the National Party obtained 42.98 percent of the votes, while the Opposition Alliance received 41.39 percent, with 14 voting tables still to be counted. The TSE said there was a 53 percent participation, representing more than 3,800,000 voters.

Only hours after the government imposed a 10-day curfew and suspension of constitutional rights on Friday, demonstrations dubbed “Caceralazo” took place throughout Honduras to defend presidential election preliminary results which showed opposition candidate, Salvador Nasrallah with a comfortable lead over the right-wing incumbent president Juan Orlando Hernandez.

A day after denouncing vote count irregularities by the TSE after repeated election result postponements, Nasrallah posted on Twitter for people to assemble "To defend the victory of the people!” They were met by police repression.

Three people – including a teenaged girl – have so far been killed in violent clashes following the disputed elections, as the armed forces opened fire on unarmed opposition supporters.

Matamoros said that election officials are "pleased with what we have seen today, a very intense participation of citizens," also noting that "we are respecting the decision they made," reporting that "the TSE has not modified a single ballot."

He also emphasized that the government agency met with representatives of former Honduran president and coordinator of the left-wing Opposition Alliance, Manuel Zelaya, in order to "clear some of his doubts" concerning the election results.

But Wilfredo Mendez of the National Board of Honduras for Human Rights said Sunday, “Beyond a state of siege we are experiencing a state of terror with the suspension of constitutional guarantees."

Nasrallah posted on his Facebook page that the “illegal and unjust curfew is nothing more than a coup against the votes of the people who do not want the current president.”

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.