A vendor shows the front page of local Honduran newspaper El Heraldo in Tegucigalpa on Monday, one day after the general elections. According to the National Electoral Council, conservative National Party candidate Nasry Asfura, who is backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, maintains a narrow lead over main challenger Salvador Nasralla. Photo by Carlos Lemos/EPA
Two days after the Nov. 30 general election, Honduras still has no president-elect.
The National Electoral Council said that with 57.03% of tally sheets processed, the two leading candidates — Nasry “Tito” Asfura and Salvador Nasralla — are separated by only 515 votes, creating what amounts to a virtual tie. The razor-thin margin has pushed the country into unprecedented electoral uncertainty.
The Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission system went offline Monday afternoon, leaving the official results platform frozen at the most sensitive stage of the vote count, the local outlet TuNota reported.
The Electoral Council announced the shutdown of the preliminary results transmission system, moving the process into a new phase. The transmitted results will no longer be changed or updated, and the figures appearing on screen will remain frozen as a public reference.
The next steps include counting the remaining tally sheets under the council’s contingency procedures, as well as conducting a special review to verify the results in cases of errors or discrepancies.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned Monday on his official Truth Social account of possible consequences if Honduras “alters” the results of election and urged the country’s electoral authorities to resume the vote count, which was halted on election night.
“Honduras is trying to change the results,” Trump wrote, adding that “there will be hell to pay!” if that happens.
ADS Group, the company responsible for the technological infrastructure behind the TREP, said the system faced two hacking attempts. The incidents were linked to an unusual spike in request volume and atypical traffic patterns that affected service stability and caused an immediate disruption in system availability, El Heraldo reported.
Amid the situation, Electoral Council President Ana Paola Hall called for calm and said tally sheets still need to be processed under contingency mechanisms before moving to a special review ahead of the official results announcement.
“We must remain calm, be patient. … The peace with which the process unfolded must be maintained until it ends,” Hall said on X.
Hall noted that the country woke up in peace after the vote and reiterated that transparency and respect for the popular will are priorities in this tight race.
Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla declared himself the “projected winner,” saying he is confident that outstanding tally sheets from his strongholds will reverse the trend.
“We are going to end up beating the National Party by 120,000 votes,” Nasralla said, predicting a comfortable victory once the remaining votes are counted, local outlet Criterio reported.
On the other side, Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the National Party, who holds the narrow early lead, avoided declaring victory prematurely. Asfura urged voters to wait for the official results with patience and transparency and called on the electoral body not to prolong the process unnecessarily.
Asfura, whom Trump endorsed, also said his internal records still show him ahead.
A third candidate, Rixi Moncada of the Libre Party, finished a distant third. Moncada rejected the preliminary results and warned she will not recognize any outcome until 100% of the tally sheets are counted, a position backed by former presidents Manuel Zelaya and Xiomara Castro.
This stance signals possible challenges from the ruling party if the final result does not favor them.
