A left-right coalition led by a flamboyant TV host took a surprise lead in the Honduran presidential election, initial results showed on Monday, upsetting forecasts that the crime-fighting, US-allied incumbent would comfortably win.
With 57 percent of ballot boxes counted, Salvador Nasralla was ahead with an almost 5 point margin at 45 percent, according to the first official results, released nearly 10 hours after voting ended.
“I am the new president-elect of Honduras,” Nasralla, 64, wrote on Twitter after the results were announced. Earlier, he and President Juan Orlando Hernandez had held competing events claiming victory during the long wait.
Nasralla, who helms the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, had 45.17 percent of the vote, while the National Party’s Hernandez had 40.21 percent, according to the country’s election tribunal.
A victory for Nasralla would be a blow for the US, which sees Hernandez as a reliable ally in tackling drug trafficking, gangs and migration. The US has longstanding military ties to Honduras and few ideological allies among the current crop of Central American presidents.
The attempt by Hernandez to clinch a second term was divisive in the poor Central American country.
Honduras is still trying to overcome the after effects of a 2009 coup that ensued when former President Manuel Zelaya, an ally of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, proposed a referendum on lifting term limits.
Zelaya was at Nasralla’s side on Monday morning. As coordinator and, many believe, the true power in the Alliance, Zelaya would be a major beneficiary if Nasralla wins.
Zelaya was ditched amid fears he was plotting to adopt socialist policies in Honduras, a country where a conservative business class wields enormous power. The US wrestled with how to handle the coup, and Zelaya remains a bogeyman for US officials and many of Honduras’ elite.
Así continúan en #Honduras, después de la elección presidencial. Lea más https://t.co/NNky1gk2hm— Prensa Libre (@prensa_libre) November 27, 2017
Polls, including one released after voting ended on Sunday, had shown Hernandez likely to easily win a second term that would have made him the first president re-elected since Honduras shed military rule nearly four decades ago. The bid was made possible by a contentious 2015 decision by the Supreme Court.
After the results were announced, Hernandez delivered a brief statement, reiterating that he had won, and urging supporters to wait for fresh results to come in from rural areas, where he enjoys greater support.
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