Honduras tribunal says incumbent Hernandez won election

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After a bitterly disputed election, the electoral tribunal of Honduras on Sunday declared incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez as the official winner of the November 26 presidential vote, an outcome that sparked calls for renewed street protests.

Electoral authorities made the announcement the day that Hernandez's leftist opponent, Salvador Nasralla, left for the US to highlight what he said was ballot tampering in the November 26 poll.

Hernandez beat center-left challenger Salvador Nasralla by 1.53 percentage points, according to the official count.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez delivers a press message in Tegucigalpa, December 6, 2017. /VCG Photo

“This means the president-elect for the Republic of Honduras for the next four years is Juan Orlando Hernandez Alvarado,” David Matamoros, the head of the tribunal, said in a nationally televised address.

Matamoros said the tribunal had resolved all the challenges presented to it and that votes were recounted at select polling stations.

A deeply contentious election

Hernandez, 49, stood for re-election against Nasralla, a 64-year-old former TV presenter, despite a constitutional ban on presidents having more than one term.

His conservative National Party said that rule was scrapped by a 2015 Supreme Court ruling.

But the opposition insists ballots were tampered with after the election and says unusual breaks in the count that dragged out the tally over more than a week was suspicious.

Honduras' presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance against Dictatorship party Salvador Nasralla shows electoral records allegedly falsified by the Electoral Supreme Tribunal (TSE), in Tegucigalpa, December 11, 2017. /VCG Photo

International observers also said they noted "irregularities."

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal had previously declined to name a winner, despite saying that its count of the ballots showed a slight margin in favor of Hernandez: 43 percent to 41 percent for Nasralla.

But it had to do so by a December 26 deadline or risk the entire election being invalidated.

Nasralla, the candidate of the leftist Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, is standing firm on his claim that he won the election, and that only fraud made it look like Hernandez had the edge.

He is insisting the entire vote be held again, with greater international scrutiny.

Violence on the street

Honduras has faced political instability and violent protests since the vote, which initial counts suggested that Nasralla had won.

The large-scale protests across the country devolved into episodes of road blockades, looting and violent confrontations with police and soldiers.

Honduran army soldiers remain alert as supporters of opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla set alight barricades to block Tegucigalpa's east accesses during a protest, December 7, 2017. /VCG Photo

The declaration could deepen a spiral of violence as anti-Hernandez protesters and police have squared off repeatedly.

Nasralla has also called for a demonstration to be "permanent" until the ring-wing "regime" of Hernandez is defeated.

Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who backed Nasralla, immediately took to Twitter, saying Hernandez “is not our president” and calling for people to take to the streets in protest.

Police have counted three deaths in the unrest. But the opposition says 20 people have died, and Amnesty International has registered 14 deaths.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters