Sawt Falasteen - Honduras begins partial vote recount in Trump-dominated election

The Central American country has not yet certified results from the election in which the US president backed Nasry Asfura, a 67-year-old right-wing businessman -- and threatened to cut aid to Honduras if he lost.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) announced a recount of some 2,800 tally sheets, representing nearly half a million votes, for "inconsistencies."

But the recount was delayed due to allegations of fraud by Asfura's rivals, which were dismissed by election observers from the Americas and Europe.

"In the presence of national and international observers, the special recount begins," CNE President Ana Paola Hall wrote Thursday on X.

Asfura, who represents the National Party, leads the count by 1.3 percentage points, or around 43,000 votes.

His closest rival is conservative television presenter Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party.

Rixi Moncada, a lawyer from the leftist ruling Libre Party, trails far behind in third.

The CNE has until December 30 to announce the winner.

The head of the Honduran military, Hector Valerio, said Thursday that he too would "firmly" respect the official election outcome.

His assurances were seen as key, given the country's long history of coups.

In the most recent one in 2009, outgoing President Xiomara Castro's husband, ex-president Manuel Zelaya, was deposed by the military with the support of the political right.

Trump endorsed Asfura to "work together to fight the Narcocommunists" and has warned "there will be hell to pay" if his lead is overturned in the count.

The more-than-two-week wait for results has caused tensions.

Thousands of supporters of the ruling party staged a demonstration Wednesday in the capital Tegucigalpa to protest what they consider "fraud" in the vote.

A soldier was injured during the demonstration.

The day before, at least eight people were injured when police broke up a similar protest.

On the eve of the election, Trump caused shock by pardoning former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party, who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.

The pardon was widely seen as contradicting Washington's ongoing offensive against Latin American drug traffickers.

F.Qawasmeh--SF-PST