Honduran presidential candidate says Trump interfered in election: Report

In addition to reports of other irregularities in electoral procedures, Salvador Nasralla, the centrist candidate for president of Honduras, has accused US President Donald Trump of interference.

The 67-year-old Nasry Asfura, a “borderline communist,” was endorsed by the US president last week, which Nasralla claims could have led to his victory.

Nasralla, 72, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday in an exclusive interview that “it hurt me because I was winning by a much larger margin.”

Trump has dominated the country’s closely fought election to choose its next leader.

After preliminary and unreliable results revealed a “technical tie” between Nasralla and Asfura, the US president claimed without supporting evidence that Sunday’s otherwise peaceful vote was fraudulent.

On Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their presidential election.” There will be hell to pay if they do it!

Prior to Asfura’s defeat, the US president threatened to stop providing aid to Honduras and said there would be “hell to pay” if election officials manipulated results.

In the run-up to Sunday’s vote, he also made the unusual move of announcing a pardon for former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been found guilty of drug trafficking in the US.

Election officials reported counting 87 percent of the ballots as of Thursday night, but 17 percent of the ballots had “inconsistencies” and were being reviewed, according to Reuters.

According to Reuters, they have until December 30 to submit their final findings.

Reuters reports that Asfura held a 40.27 percent lead over Nasralla’s 39.38 percent in polls on Thursday, but experts claim the outcome is still undetermined.