(MENAFN- Gulf Times) A
preliminary ballot count in Honduras' disputed presidential race
yesterday pointed to a second term for incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez,
while his opponent accused the government of stealing the election and
called for protests.
US-backed Hernandez had 42.98% of the vote,
compared with opposition challenger Salvador Nasralla's 41.39%, based on
99.96% of ballots tallied after a partial recount of more than 1,000
polling stations.
David Matamoros, who heads the electoral tribunal and is a member of Hernandez's party, refused to declare a winner.
Parties can still file legal challenges, and a wider recount is possible, he told reporters.
Early
last week, Nasralla, a former sportscaster and game show host, appeared
set for an upset victory over Hernandez, gaining a five-point lead with
more than half of the ballots tallied.
The counting process suddenly halted for more than a day and began leaning in favour of Hernandez after resuming.
Opposition
leaders said on Sunday they wanted a recount of all the polling
stations that were entered into the system after the delay.
Protesters flooded streets across the country on Sunday to decry what they called a dictatorship.
As
night fell, the sounds of plastic horns, honking cars, fireworks and
beaten saucepans echoed over the Tegucigalpa capital, challenging a
military curfew imposed to clamp down on protests that have spread since
last week.
Nasralla, addressing a giant rally in the capital earlier
in the day, told the armed forces not to enforce the curfew and
encouraged supporters to walk out on a national strike starting
yesterday.
'I call on all members of the armed forces to rebel
against your bosses, Nasralla told a cheering throng of supporters who
booed nearby troops. 'You all over there, you shouldn't be there; you
should be part of the people.
TV images showed similar protests in other major cities.
While
there were no reports of violence on Sunday, hundreds have been
arrested and at least three people were killed in recent days.
The
government imposed a military-enforced curfew on Friday that expanded
powers for the army and police to detain people and break up blockades
of roads, bridges and public buildings.
The tribunal began the partial recount on Sunday.
The
Organisation of American States said Nasralla's demands to recount more
than 5,000 polling stations were doable, and it urged the tribunal to
make further checks.
Also on Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro accused the US of backing vote fraud in Honduras, while the top
official at the US embassy praised the peaceful protests and the
'orderly final count then under way.
Honduras struggles with violent
drug gangs, one of world's highest murder rates and endemic poverty,
driving a tide of its people to migrate to the US.
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