By Laura Garcia and Natalia Siniawski
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Honduran centrist candidate Salvador Nasralla alleged fraud in the country's highly contested presidential vote on Thursday after his Trump-backed rival Nasry Asfura pulled narrowly past him overnight.
Nasralla, in a post on X, said the screen displaying the vote data went blank at 3:24 a.m. and alleged "an algorithm changed the data," giving the higher tally to Asfura after Nasralla had been leading the vote count since Tuesday. The results are being updated on the electoral body's website.
The run-up to the vote in the small Central American country had been rocked for months by allegations of fraud. The election was catapulted to the international stage as U.S. President Donald Trump threw his support behind Asfura and alleged, without evidence, that there had been possible fraud in the initial vote tally.
17% OF VOTES TO BE REVIEWED
The National Party's Asfura held 40.08%, about 10,100 votes ahead of the Liberal Party's Nasralla, who had 39.70%. Rixi Moncada of the ruling leftist LIBRE Party remained well behind in third place in the election, which was held on Sunday.
With about 85% of the tally sheets counted, each representing votes from a single polling station, Asfura gained a narrow lead. Around 17% of the tally sheets have inconsistencies and will be reviewed, according to the country's electoral authority.
Nasralla's post did not include evidence of the vote change.
"They must investigate the Colombian company involved in these changes, ASD," he said.
Fraud allegations have haunted Honduras since the fiercely contested 2013 presidential election, when opposition leaders accused the ruling party of manipulating vote tallies and violating campaign finance rules in a race marred by irregularities.
Nasralla said Honduras "will not allow a repeat of the Batson curve," a reference to David Matamoros Batson, the former electoral tribunal chief whose tenure became synonymous with late-night vote swings and contested results in past elections.
ASD, the Colombian company handling Honduras' ballot processing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ana Paola Hall of the electoral body said earlier on Thursday the margin between the National and Liberal Party candidates was historically thin and commended the candidates for refraining from "declarations of victory or any attempts at sabotage" in a post on X.
The latest tally marks another shift in the seesaw race. Nasralla had held a razor-thin lead on Wednesday, and the two frontrunners have repeatedly switched places as hand-counted tallies trickled in from across the country. Preliminary results released on Monday showed what the electoral body called a "technical tie."
RESULTS REPORTING HAS BEEN CHAOTIC
Voting on Sunday was calm and peaceful, according to independent electoral observers. But the subsequent reporting of the results has been chaotic, marred by starts and stops that have intensified frustrations over the tight race.
Members of the electoral council have blamed the company behind the tabulating platform for pauses in the vote count.
Trump has repeatedly waded into Honduras' election. Ahead of the vote, he strongly backed Asfura, the 67-year-old former mayor of the capital of Tegucigalpa. Then he claimed, without providing evidence, possible fraud in a social media post on Monday night.
Trump also pardoned a former president of Asfura's National Party: Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been serving a 45-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Despite the charged environment, Tegucigalpa's streets remained calm on Thursday as citizens awaited results.
The Honduran presidency is decided in a single round. The candidate with the most votes wins, even if the margin is narrow or the candidate falls short of a majority.
In previous election cycles, contested results have led to mass protests and violent crackdowns by security forces.
(Reporting by Fredy Rodriguez, Laura Garcia and Emily Green in Tegucigalpa, Natalia Siniawski and Diego Ore in Mexico City and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez in Barcelona; Editing by Cassandra Garrison, Daina Beth Solomon and Rod Nickel)
