TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Honduras' electoral authority pleaded for calm on Tuesday as it scrambled to overcome a system failure that left about 20% of votes in the presidential election uncounted, as U.S. President Donald Trump hurled allegations of possible fraud and swore "there will be hell to pay" if results are altered.
No update to the vote tally has been given since around midday on Monday when the electoral body said the two presidential front runners, Nasry Asfura of the National Party and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, were in a "technical tie" with each holding just under 40% of the vote. Asfura was ahead by only 515 votes, it said. Rixi Moncada, of the ruling LIBRE Party, was well behind in third place with 19% of the vote.
But the rapid count system was beset by issues, the CNE electoral authority said in a statement on Tuesday. That had also resulted in problems with the web portal where results were meant to be updated in real time. The website was down much of Monday, causing tensions to rise in the tightly contested race, plagued by accusations of possible fraud before votes were even cast on Sunday.
Electoral workers are now counting vote tallies by hand and it is not clear when updated results will be released.
As the count continues, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party was released from a U.S. prison on Monday, where he was serving a 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking and firearms charges, a Federal Bureau of Prisons registry showed.
His release came after U.S. President Donald Trump urged Honduran voters to cast their ballots for the National Party candidate, Asfura, and said he would pardon Hernandez. A White House official confirmed on Tuesday that Trump had pardoned Hernandez.
Trump weighed in on Monday in a social media post in which he alleged, without evidence, that Honduras was "trying to change the results of their Presidential Election."
"If they do there will be hell to pay! The people of Honduras voted in overwhelming numbers on November 30th," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
There was high voter turnout in Sunday's election, which was peaceful across the country, according to the Organization of American States, which observed the vote. It said in a statement on Monday that it "was able to verify that the voting proceeded normally, except for isolated incidents in some municipalities of the country."
But there are concerns that if the vote count drags on, the highly charged election environment could lead to protests and possible violence.
The electoral authority said it would now release information about the count directly to media and political parties to ensure the public was able to follow the results.
Former President Manuel Zelaya, who is also the husband of current President Xiomara Castro, lambasted Trump's interference in the election, saying on X that it was an attempt to stop Moncada's bid, and vowing the Honduran people would stand up for democracy. "We who fight for liberty are on our feet," he wrote. "We are patriots and nobody yields."
On Monday evening, Moncada said the elections were "still not lost" and alleged that the other parties had manipulated the process. She also denounced U.S. interference in the election.
In the run-up, Trump weighed in on the tightly contested race to throw his support behind Asfura, 67-year-old former mayor of Tegucigalpa, in a series of social media posts, saying he could work with him to counter drug trafficking. He accused Moncada of being a "communist," without providing evidence.
(Reporting by Laura Garcia in Tegucigalpa, Laura Gottesdiener and Diego Ore in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Brendan O'Boyle and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Daniel Wallis)
