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Honduran President Xiomara Castro accused the United States of meddling in the country's national election on Tuesday, escalating a growing controversy over vote tallying that has left the November 30 contest without a clear winner more than a week after polls closed.
Castro denounced what she described as systematic tampering with election results and directly criticized US President Donald Trump for threatening Honduran voters with unspecified consequences if they supported her party's candidate. The allegations add an international dimension to mounting domestic concerns about the integrity of Central America's closely watched electoral process.
According to the National Electoral Council, Trump-endorsed conservative candidate Nasry Asfura holds a narrow lead with 40.53 percent of counted votes, while right-wing candidate Salvador Nasralla trails closely at 39.16 percent. Both candidates remain far ahead of Rixi Moncada, the nominee from Castro's left-wing Libre party, who is polling in third place.
The vote count has been plagued by successive computer failures affecting the preliminary results system, fueling suspicions across the political spectrum about potential interference. Nasralla has rejected the published tallies as fraudulent, claiming without presenting evidence that he actually leads by 20 percentage points and describing the outcome as theft.
Speaking at a rally in central Honduras, Castro said voters had participated with courage and determination despite what she characterized as a flawed process marked by threats, coercion, manipulation of the preliminary results system, and tampering with the popular will.
The president specifically accused Trump of interfering by issuing warnings about consequences for voting for Moncada. During the campaign's final stretch, Trump publicly backed Asfura, calling the 67-year-old candidate a friend of freedom while dismissing Nasralla as merely pretending to be an anti-communist.
Nasralla is demanding a vote-by-vote recount of all tallies, arguing that the results show a pattern of fraud where biometric recognition systems were not properly used and voting records were drafted arbitrarily. Election officials acknowledged late Sunday that thousands of voting records containing inconsistencies still require review.
The Libre party escalated its response over the weekend, demanding total annulment of the election and calling for protests and strikes. Party leaders have urged officials to refuse cooperation with any government transition process.
The Trump administration responded Monday by defending the election's legitimacy, stating there was no credible evidence justifying annulment. The assertion directly contradicts claims from both Castro's government and opposition candidate Nasralla, who have raised concerns from opposing political perspectives.
Under Honduran law, the electoral council has until December 30 to officially declare a winner. The contested result comes as Honduras faces broader questions about democratic stability in a region where electoral disputes have historically sparked political crises.
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