🔗 Share this article Presidential Contender Claims Election Has Been 'Manipulated' Tensions have run high as the lead changed hands several times. The centrist candidate in Honduras's knife-edge presidential election, Salvador Nasralla, has accused "corrupt people" of tampering with the vote count in the Central American nation. Over a week after the election, the election authority has still not declared a winner, but the latest results suggest that Nasry "Tito" Asfura, the right-wing contender backed by US President Donald Trump, holds a narrow lead. Nasralla, who had been ahead in the initial stages before dropping into second place, stated on social media: "This is a robbery." The progressive hopeful placed in third, Rixi Moncada, has called for the vote to be annulled and accused Trump of the election. Close Results and Growing Unrest With the vast majority of votes counted, Asfura had just over forty percent of the vote, ahead of Nasralla with under forty percent and Moncada with just under twenty percent, per the National Electoral Council's (CNE) update. Frustration has been growing over the last week as the counting stalled several times, sometimes for days on end. Representatives of the CNE attributed the delays to "system glitches." They have also warned that thousands of voting records with "inconsistencies" still need to be reviewed. Trump's Endorsement and Controversial Pardon The run-up to the election was dominated by Trump's endorsement of Nasry "Tito" Asfura. Shortly before the vote, Trump backed the former mayor of Tegucigalpa, stating that "Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists." "Our support will be strong should Asfura win, but the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a poor choice can only bring catastrophic results," Trump added. In a unexpected action two days before the election, Trump also granted clemency to jailed former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is from the same party as Asfura. Hernández was in the midst of a 45-year prison sentence in the US for conspiring to import cocaine. His pardon and subsequent release has stunned Honduran authorities, who have issued an international arrest warrant for Hernández, who is still in the US. Mounting Tensions and Claims of Interference Meanwhile, the situation has grown more tense as the lead in the vote count fluctuated repeatedly. Trump accused the CNE of "trying to change" the outcome when Nasralla pulled past Asfura early on. "If they do, there will be hell to pay," the US president said without providing evidence of any fraud. Ever since the Trump-endorsed Asfura took the lead, it has been his two rivals alleging misconduct. Rixi Moncada's Libre party called for the "the total annulment" of the elections. It also called on its supporters to take to the streets against what it called "meddling and pressure of the President of the United States." Nasralla blamed unnamed "bad actors" for "delaying the counting process." According to the nation's regulations, the CNE has until 30 December to declare a winner.