The Honduran presidential candidate backed by US President Donald Trump has maintained a slight lead in a tight race, preliminary results showed Monday morning.
Initial counts showed Nasri “Tito” Asfura of the right-wing National Party with about 41% of the vote, followed by Liberal Party contender Salvador Nasralla with about 39%.
Rixi Moncada of the ruling LIBRE party trails at about 20%.
As of early Monday, just over 40% of the ballots had been counted.
Both Asfura and Nasrallah argued that it was too early to claim victory.
The winner with a simple majority will rule the Central American country from 2026 to 2030.
Earlier, Trump had intervened in the close presidential race by threatening to cut aid to the country if his preferred candidate, Asfura, was not successful.
Trump also announced that he would pardon former President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Who are the candidates for the next President of Honduras?
Honduras could be the next country in Latin America, after Argentina and Bolivia, to lean to the right after years of leftist rule.
Polls show three candidates are neck-and-neck in the race to succeed leftist President Xiomara Castro, whose husband Manuel Zelaya also led the country before being ousted in a 2009 coup.
Trump-backed Asfura, 60-year-old lawyer Rixi Moncada of the ruling Libre Party and 72-year-old TV host Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party are the leading candidates to become the next president of Honduras.
Trump’s threat
Polls open at 7 a.m. local time (1300 GMT), with the first results expected late Sunday after polling stations close at 5 p.m.
Trump has made it a condition to continue financial aid for Asfura, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, if Asfura, the 67-year-old former mayor of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, wins.
“If he (Asfura) does not win, the United States will not throw good money after bad money,” he posted on his Truth social platform on Friday, repeating threats he made in support of Argentinian President Javier Meili’s party in recent midterms.
Trump also announced Friday that he planned to pardon Hernandez, the former president of Honduras of the National Party, who is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for cocaine trafficking and other charges.
The election, which will also elect 128 members of Congress, hundreds of mayors and thousands of other public officials, is taking place in a polarized environment, with the three top candidates accusing each other of fraud.
Moncada has even suggested that she would not recognize the official results.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko