TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Poll workers began tallying Hondurans’ votes Sunday evening as the country moved to elect a new president only days after U.S. President Donald Trump intervened in a close race by endorsing a candidate and announcing that he would pardon a former president.
Voting was extended an hour beyond the original closing time in many locations to accommodate remaining voters. No major voting problems were initially reported by electoral authorities.
In addition to a new president, voters were casting ballots for a new Congress, as well as hundreds of local positions.
Among the five presidential candidates on the ballot, polls indicated three had a chance to win and were finishing in close competition. They are:
1. Rixi Moncada, who served as finance and later as defense secretary in the current administration of President Xiomara Castro and is running for the social democrat LIBRE or Liberty and Re-foundation party. Moncada is promising to “democratize” an economy still defined by extreme wealth and poverty.
2. Salvador Nasralla, who is making his fourth bid for the presidency, this time as the candidate for the conservative Liberal Party. He casts himself as an outsider who can clean up the country’s endemic corruption.
3. Former Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry “Tito” Asfura, who is trying to restore the conservative National Party as a pro-business force after former presidents from the party were embroiled in corruption scandals, with one sent to prison in the U.S.
Hondurans say security and jobs remain their top priorities, despite an economy that has strengthened during Castro’s administration. Honduras’ security situation has improved in recent years as homicides across the region continue to fall, but it still has Central America’s highest homicide rate.
The presidential contest mostly focused on candidates trading accusations of plans to manipulate the vote until this past week, when Trump endorsed Asfura while attacking his opponents, the latest signal of the United States’ renewed interest in Latin America.
Trump shocked Hondurans Friday by announcing that he would pardon ex-President J