Challenger holds surprise lead in Honduras presidential vote

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The main challenger to Honduras’ president held an unexpected lead Monday in early returns from the presidential election, then officials stopped releasing results and the ruling party continued to claim victory while readying its supporters to take to the streets.

David Matamoros, president of the electoral court, announced around 2 a.m. that with 57 percent of the votes counted from Sunday’s election, Salvador Nasralla had 45.7 percent to 40.2 percent for conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Hernandez, an ally of the U.S., had gone into the election predicted to win based on his popularity for fighting crime, but his party also drew heavy criticism for getting a court to override the Honduran Constitution’s ban on consecutive presidential terms. And corruption cases also tainted the administration.

Turnout in Sunday’s vote appeared to be heavy across the country.

Nasralla called for his supporters to celebrate in front of the electoral court’s offices, while Reynaldo Sanchez, president of the ruling National Party, sent a recorded message to party members saying it was time “to prepare our people to defend the triumph in the streets.”

The Electoral Observation Coaltion N-26, a nonpartisan civil society group, expressed concern at the silence from election officials.

Nasralla, a 64-year-old sportscaster and one of the country’s best-known television personalities, was making his second bid for the presidency. Although he has a reputation as a conservative, he ran as the candidate of the Alliance Against Dictatorship, a coalition formed with the leftist party of former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted by a military coup in 2009.