Honduras Election in Doubt: Ruling Party Seeks Annulment After TREP Failures

Honduras' ruling party, Libertad y Refundación (Libre), has formally asked the National Electoral Council (CNE) to annul the Nov. 30 presidential vote, alleging major failures in the Preliminary Results Transmission System (TREP) used to relay initial results.

Libre's legal representative, Edson Argueta, called the system “a disaster” and said it “does not guarantee the popular will,” arguing that the reported irregularities are serious enough to invalidate the entire process.

“The system is a disaster and does not guarantee the popular will,” Argueta said, urging annulment of the count.

The official tally has been stalled since Friday, increasing uncertainty nationwide. With 88.02% of tally sheets processed, National Party candidate Nasry Asfura leads with 40.19%, Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla follows with 39.49%, and Libre candidate Rixi Moncada holds 19.30%.

CNE officials have acknowledged technical disruptions. Council president Ana Paola Hall attributed the interruptions to “technical problems outside the CNE's control” and pledged that the full, verified results will be published when available. Council member Cossette López extended the deadline for parties to request an administrative annulment or a special recount, citing delays in data processing and difficulties accessing the official platform.

Salvador Nasralla said he does not support annulling the election but accused authorities of subtracting votes from his total. He told reporters his team has “100% of the physical tally sheets” and claimed that “more than 5,000 sheets contain serious errors,” calling for a detailed review to reconcile discrepancies.

The Organization of American States (OAS), led by former Paraguayan foreign minister Eladio Loizaga, urged Honduran authorities to accelerate the count and ensure traceability of the results. The OAS mission reported the race is extremely tight and warned of limited technical capacity in the systems used to process and publish vote totals.

Concerns about TREP were raised weeks before the election: a Nov. 9 national simulation detected transmission problems. On election day, the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo reported incidents at polling places — including alleged double voting, trafficking of credentials and altered tally sheets — and videos on social media appeared to show poll workers casting additional ballots in favor of the National Party.

In response to localized failures, the CNE authorized a repeat vote in the municipality of San Antonio de Flores after several polling stations there failed to open on Nov. 30, effectively invalidating the vote in that locality. San Antonio de Flores has 4,996 registered voters. With the nationwide margin between Asfura and Nasralla at just 515 votes, results from this municipality could be decisive.

CNE president Ana Paola Hall said the repeat ballot complies with electoral regulations and that those results will be incorporated into the final national count. Meanwhile, parties and observers await a complete review of physical tally sheets, any authorized recounts, and the CNE’s final certified numbers.

What Comes Next

Political tensions remain high as parties consider legal challenges and recount requests. The CNE’s handling of technical fixes, transparency measures, and the timely publication of verified results will be central to whether the final count is widely accepted domestically and by international observers.