Vote count halts again in Honduras at 80% of ballots

The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras announced on Wednesday that the platform reporting the election results has once again stopped at 80% of ballots counted, three days after the general elections.

Honduran electoral councilor Cossette Lopez Osorio, through US social media company X, denounced the halt in the publication of results and condemned the company "Grupo ASD," which is responsible for the webpage that displays the real-time results, for failing to meet its contractual obligations.

"It is INEXCUSABLE for the publication to stop again due to maintenance actions on the system without notifying the Plenary, during crucial hours for the vote count and the publishing of tally sheets. This is now also affecting the public results rooms we implemented to mitigate the effects of the company's deficient service," she said on X.

By 2 pm local time (2100GMT), with 80% of polling stations counted, Salvador Nasralla, the Liberal Party of Honduras candidate, was leading the election with 1,023,359 votes, pulling ahead of conservative Nasry Asfura of the National Party, who remained in second place with 1,007,528 votes.

Despite the difference and Nasralla's lead over Asfura, members of the National Party insist that the election leans toward their candidate, arguing that the polling stations from departments where their party is dominant have yet to be counted.

According to Grupo ASD, the count was halted due to maintenance on the results portal, which had allegedly gone down again because of a surge in the number of people trying to access it to check the results.

On Dec. 1, the Honduran elections were left in suspense after the system reporting the results crashed with only 50% of polling stations counted and Asfura holding a slight lead. More than 24 hours later, the count resumed and continued until today.