🔗 Share this article Presidential Candidate Alleges Election Has Been 'Manipulated' Tensions have run high as the lead changed hands several times. The moderate candidate in Honduras's knife-edge presidential election, Salvador Nasralla, has accused "unscrupulous individuals" of tampering with the vote count in the country. Nine days after the election, the electoral council has still not declared a winner, but the most recent tally suggest that Nasry "Tito" Asfura, the conservative candidate endorsed by US President Donald Trump, holds a narrow lead. Nasralla, who had been ahead in the initial stages before falling to 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 invalidated and accused Trump of the election. Close Results and Growing Unrest With the vast majority of votes counted, Asfura had 40.53% of the vote, ahead of Nasralla with under forty percent and Moncada with just under twenty percent, according to the election body's update. Patience has worn thin over the last week as the counting stalled several times, sometimes for days on end. Representatives of the CNE attributed the delays to "IT issues." They have also cautioned that thousands of voting records with "discrepancies" still need to be examined. Trump's Endorsement and Surprise Pardon The period preceding the election was dominated by Trump's support for Nasry "Tito" Asfura. Just days before the vote, Trump threw his weight behind the former mayor of Tegucigalpa, stating that "Tito and I can work together to fight the drug traffickers." "Our support will be strong should Asfura win, but the United States will not be wasting resources, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results," Trump added. In a surprise move two days before the election, Trump also pardoned jailed former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who stems 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 clemency and freedom has shocked Honduran authorities, who have issued an international arrest warrant for Hernández, who remains in the US. Rising Tensions and Allegations of Interference At the same time, tension has been rising as the lead in the vote count fluctuated repeatedly. Trump claimed the CNE of "seeking to alter" the outcome when Nasralla pulled past Asfura early on. "They will face severe consequences," the US president said without providing evidence of any fraud. Since the moment the Trump-endorsed Asfura took the lead, it has been his two rivals crying foul. Rixi Moncada's Libre party called for the "the total annulment" of the elections. It also urged its supporters to take to the streets against what it called "meddling and pressure of the President of the United States." Nasralla blamed unnamed "corrupt ones" for "holding up the counting process." According to the nation's regulations, the CNE has until 30 December to declare a winner.