Honduras Awaits Final Presidential Tally as Slow Count and Technical Failures Raise Tensions

More than a week after Hondurans voted on Nov. 30 to choose a new president and members of Congress, election authorities continue to process ballots and resolve problematic tally sheets, fueling public frustration and allegations of irregularities from the three leading presidential contenders.

Current Standings

As of Monday, officials say 88% of ballots have been counted. Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party leads with 40.21% of the vote, while Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party follows closely at 39.49%. Rixi Moncada of the ruling social‑democrat Liberty and Re‑founding party (LIBRE) holds 19.28% and has called for the election to be annulled.

"LIBRE does not recognize the elections held under the interference and coercion of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the allied oligarchy that have attacked the Honduran people with an ongoing electoral coup," Moncada said.

Technical Problems and the Counting Process

Public confidence has been shaken by repeated crashes of the website used to publish preliminary results. Eduardo Fuentes, director of Honduras' National Electoral Council (CNE), said the platform — managed by a Colombian company — experienced outages that slowed public updates. He asked citizens for patience and noted the law gives the council up to 30 days to complete the official count.

Fuentes explained the count is performed in stages: polling‑place tally sheets are scanned and transmitted to a central collection center for initial tabulation (the TREP system). Officials then address sheets that failed to transmit due to poor connectivity, followed by sheets that could not be scanned at polling places because of electricity or internet outages; those must be physically transported to the council for processing. The count is currently at this latter stage.

"The tally sheets are extracted from all boxes, scanned, and incorporated to the official count. We're at that stage now," Fuentes said.

Contested Sheets And A Possible Recount

The council says 7,776 tally sheets have reported problems. Of those, 2,294 pertain to presidential votes and could influence the narrow gap between the top two contenders, who are separated by roughly 20,000 votes. The remaining 5,482 sheets concern congressional and mayoral races. If processing those sheets reduces the margin between Nasralla and Asfura, the CNE will order a special recount.

Fuentes said a special recount would reprocess every tally sheet with inconsistencies or that was not returned because of connectivity or power failures. The CNE plans to deploy 150 Special Verification Boards for any recount, each composed of a representative from each party, a council official, an international observer, and an auditor. Prosecutors from the Special Electoral Crimes Prosecutor’s Office will be invited and cameras will record proceedings. The recount will operate continuously in two 12‑hour shifts and could take seven to eight days, depending on the volume of disputed sheets.

Context

The campaign saw an unusual intervention when U.S. President Donald Trump publicly endorsed Asfura in the days before the vote and announced a pardon for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a member of the same party, who was sentenced in the United States to 45 years for his role in drug trafficking. Those developments have further polarized responses to the count.

For now, Hondurans and international observers are waiting as officials complete the multilayered process to deliver a certified result.