Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017 | 9:26 p.m.
MEXICO CITY — The Honduran electoral commission on Sunday declared President Juan Orlando Hernández the victor in a bitterly contested race, defying international observers who say there are serious doubts about the results.
The electoral commission, which is controlled by allies of Hernández, said he had won by about 50,000 votes over the opposition candidate, Salvador Nasralla.
The announcement seemed likely to escalate the political crisis that has gripped Honduras since the Nov. 27 vote.
David Matamoros, the electoral commission president and a member of the president’s National Party, declared a winner despite a call from the Organization of American States to hold back. Its secretary-general, Luis Almagro, said on Twitter that the OAS observer mission “concludes that serious doubts about the results persist.”
“The lack of certainty leads me to ask for no irresponsible pronouncements” until the observer mission gives its report, Almagro wrote.
On Friday, a national strike led to clashes between protesters and the military police at roadblocks around the country. At least 22 people have been killed since the disputed vote, according to
the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras, a human rights group.
On election night, preliminary results suggested that Nasralla had a strong lead — but the count was then stopped for more than a day. When the counting resumed, Hernández was reported to have begun closing the gap as new results were registered. Eventually, the electoral commission’s tally gave him a small lead.
Election observers from the OAS said on Dec. 6 that the “irregularities, mistakes and systemic problems plaguing this election make it difficult” to be “certain about the outcome.”
The organization backed a call for a partial recount, and the electoral commission went ahead with the tally. The alliance of leftist parties backing Nasralla, as well as a third party, the Liberal Party, handed over their copies of the tally sheets from polling places to the OAS and asked for a full recount.
On Sunday, Matamoros, the electoral commission president, said in a brief televised statement that the agency had complied with all the OAS recommendations.
Nasralla’s alliance has called for protests on Monday. The Liberal party has scheduled protests for Tuesday.
