Hondurans Still Awaiting Election Results

News Americas, TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, NY, Weds. Mar. 17, 2021: Hondurans are still awaiting results from primary elections held their Sunday, with the National Electoral Council (CNE) saying last night it has begun counting, scanning and publication of the first electoral records of the votes cast for the National, Liberal and Free Party throughout the country.

Germán Lobo, alternate councilor of the CNE, said Tuesday that the process started late, because the movements took time to accredit their representatives in the count and scan of the minutes.

So far, exit polls show Xiomara Castro, wife of former President Manuel Zelaya, who is making her second bid to be the Libre party’s presidential candidate, ahead with 70 percent. This though Zelaya’s name also came up last week in the trial of accused Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez.

Nasry Tito Asfura, the capital’s mayor, of the National Party has 63 percent followed by Yani Rosenthal, who was sentenced in 2017 and agreed to give up $3 million after pleading guilty to laundering money for the Cachiros cartel, with 45 percent.

Honduras’ economy has been hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two devastating Category 4 hurricanes passed through in November. Persistent gang violence and endemic corruption continue to drive large numbers of Hondurans out of the country and into the US via its southern border.