A member of Honduras’s election council has accused one of her colleagues of seeking to derail proceedings as the Central American country awaits the outcome of Sunday’s presidential election.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Cossette Lopez-Osorio of the National Electoral Council (CNE) alleged that her fellow panel member, Marlon Ochoa, sought to delay a news conference through “intimidation”.
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“The press conference to mark the resumption of the results release was disrupted,” Lopez-Osorio wrote.
“Councillor Marlon Ochoa opposed restarting the process and sent members of the LIBRE party, as well as members of his staff, to storm the Hotel Plaza Juan Carlos, engaging in acts of intimidation to prevent the public appearance.”
The accusations escalate the already heated atmosphere surrounding Sunday’s race.
Currently, two candidates are in a dead heat as votes continue to be counted: Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party and Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the right-wing National Party.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Nasralla had inched ahead with more than 39.93 percent of the vote, with Asfura close behind at 39.86 percent.
A former frontrunner in the race, Rixi Moncada of the left-leaning LIBRE party, had fallen behind in early vote counts. According to the CNE, approximately 20 percent of the votes have yet to be tallied.
Infighting on the council
But even before the first ballots were cast in Sunday’s election, controversies had gripped the council, resulting in accusations of malpractice from all three leading parties.
The CNE is led by a three-person panel. Each CNE councillor is selected by Honduras’s legislature to represent the three main political parties: the Liberal Party, the National Party and LIBRE, the party of outgoing President Xiomara Castro.
Lopez-Osorio represents the National Party. She has had a tumultuous relationship with her LIBRE counterpart, Ochoa.
In October, Ochoa filed a complaint with federal prosecutors, alleging that Lopez-Osorio had been caught in audio recordings conspiring with the Honduran military to influence the results.
Lopez-Osorio has denied the allegations. “These are fabricated recordings,” she told the Honduran newspaper La Prensa, calling Ochoa’s complaint “outrageous”.
Attorney General Johel Zelaya nevertheless opened an investigation into the audio recordings on October 29.
Ochoa, meanwhile, continued to raise doubts about the election proceedings as the November 30 vote drew near.
On November 9, for instance, he posted on social media that a test of the voting system had “failed”, citing connectivity