More than 6 million Hondurans went to the polls this past Sunday to elect the country’s next president in a process marked by irregularities, foreign interference, and coup attempts by the far right. Pre-election polls showed a wide lead for the candidate of the ruling Libre party, Rixi Moncada. However, today Honduras marks three days without knowing its president-elect, amid technical failures and an extremely tight count that keeps conservative candidates Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla in a technical tie, in what Moncada describe as an electoral plot.
With 57.03% of the tally sheets processed (as of press time), the difference between the two is only 515 votes, insufficient to declare a winner in a scenario that has left the country in suspense. This situation is not accidental. One week before the elections, leaked audio recordings came to light revealing million-dollar negotiations with an opposition adviser of the National Electoral Council (CNE). The content, released by the media, shows a network of pressure and illegal negotiations aimed at overturning the victory of the candidate of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), Rixi Moncada.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Just two days before the elections, U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed candidate Asfura and warned Hondurans that the United States “will not waste its money” on the country if his preferred candidate did not win. He described Nasralla as “almost a communist.” He also decided to pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted of helping to bring four hundred tons of cocaine into the United States All of this comes amid an unprecedented deployment of warships and more than 15,000 US troops in Caribbean waters, positioned just a few miles off the Venezuelan coast under the pretext of “counter-narcotics operations.”
For Rixi Moncada, this gesture constitutes a political message that interferes in the country’s internal affairs. “President Donald Trump calls me a communist, that worn-out Cold War label… the Honduran people who know me must be outraged by his interference,” she declared.
And the intervention did not stop there. On Monday, Trump claimed that authorities were manipulating the results, without presenting any evidence. It is another extraordinary intervention in the Honduran elections, fueling controversy just as electoral officials urge citizens to remain patient and peaceful.
In this context of political destabilization, Rixi Moncada sparked an intense national debate by denouncing an “electoral plot” aimed at altering the results of the recent Honduran elections. The accusations focus on the existence of thousands of tally sheets without biometric validation and their use to inflate votes, especially at the presidential level.
According to the technical analysis presented by Moncada’s team, 2,859 tally sheets were not validated with the biometric system, representing 25.35% of the total. These tally sheets, she claims, contain an average of 217 votes each, with exceptional cases reporting up to 100 additional votes beyond what each document should reflect.
One of the most sensitive points of the complaint is the distribution of these tally sheets among the traditional political parties. According to the information provided: the National Party accounts for 1,588 tally sheets without biometrics, representing 326,285 votes. For its part, the Liberal Party has 1,041 tally sheets, associated with 217,193 votes. Together, both parties—historically the pillars of Honduran bipartisanship—accumulate 2,629 tally sheets without biometric validation, equivalent to 543,478 votes counted as valid without the corresponding fingerprint record.
Moncada maintained that many of these tally sheets “have more votes than they should,” noting that her team has identified significant inconsistencies that would justify a thorough review during the general recount.
In contrast, the LIBRE Party, which she represents, reports only 204 tally sheets without biometric validation, a considerably smaller number compared to the other political forces. Moreover, the candidate declared that the removal of biometric validation was approved by the CNE “the night before the elections,” a decision that, according to her, opened the door to the inclusion of inflated tally sheets and facilitated an alleged scheme to manipulate results.
Once again, it is the people who suffer the consequences. Honduran Jorge Meza stated: “I am against everything that is happening because it is an insult to Honduras. We do not deserve that because of a political agenda that comes from outside to control the electoral process of our country. So all of us, as Hondurans, we feel mocked. Another country is meddling in our sovereignty, something that is the sole right of the Honduran people. We are the only ones who can control our own destiny”
The country remains in a climate of expectation and tension. What is determined within the legal timeframe will define not only the next government, but also public confidence in electoral institutions and the future of Honduran democracy. Moncada remains firm, committed to her political stance: “I will not give up. I will always stand by the people, with my values firm in defense of my free homeland, in the principles of non-interference and popular sovereignty.”
