Hernandez ‘claims’ victory

HONDURAN President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Sunday declared himself the winner of elections before official results were announced – and his top rival did the same.

“The result is more than clear: we won this election,” Hernandez told supporters who cheered him in the capital Tegucigalpa.

Shortly after his announcement, 64-year-old Salvador Nasralla of the leftist Alliance against the Dictatorship coalition also proclaimed himself the winner.

Nasralla later reiterated that claim, telling his supporters “I am the new president of Honduras,” saying he was in the lead and could not be caught.

The opposition has denounced the Constitutional Court’s decision to allow Hernandez to run for re-election despite a constitutional one-term limit, a move that has sparked fears of a crisis in the crime-racked country.

A coalition of civil society observers cautioned against proclaiming victory without the official results.

“The emotion of the moment should not create situations that could fuel uncertainty and polarisation of Honduran society,” the Electoral Observation Coalition said.

Supreme Electoral Tribunal president David Matamoros explained that he had not yet disclosed results because figures are not representative – although 40% of the ballots have been tabulated, they do not include the rural vote.

An estimated six million people were eligible to vote, electing not just a president but also members of Congress, mayors and members of the Central American Parliament.

“We have observed a quiet process; what we have seen so far has been positive,” said Marisa Matias, a European parliament observer from Portugal, one of some 16 000 monitors.

Hernandez’s conservative National Party – which controls the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government – contends that a 2015 Supreme Court ruling allows his reelection.

“Thanks to everyone for strengthening democracy,” Hernandez said on Twitter. “We are leading and we are going to win decisively.”

The opposition, however, has denounced his bid, saying the court does not have the power to overrule the 1982 constitution.

Hernandez’s main rivals – former TV anchor Nasralla and Luis Zelaya, 50, of the right-leaning Liberal Party – had both said before the vote that they would not recognise a Hernandez victory.

“It’s an atypical electoral process with an illegal re-election,” said Zelaya after voting.

Nasralla, while visiting voting stations around the capital to rally his supporters, urged them to be vigilant for signs of fraud.

“They are out here offering poor people food, roof tiles or cement in exchange for their vote,” he complained.

“I tell them that’s how they are going to stay poor. I am going to create jobs for them.”

Hernandez, 49, cast his vote early in his home town of Gracias, in mountainous western Honduras.

Apart from the presidential election, Sunday’s ballot will also decide the country’s three vice-presidential posts, the 128-seat congress, 20 representatives in the Central American Parliament and the mayors of 298 municipalities. — AFP