Honduras election officials say ‘technical problems’ crashed vote count site

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The website Honduran electoral authorities set up to share vote tallies experienced “technical problems” that caused it to crash and leave the public in the dark about the extremely close presidential and other contests, the National Electoral Council said Tuesday.

The website had been updating vote counts since the close of polling in Sunday’s election, but it went down around midday Monday and there had been no official updates of the vote count’s progress since.

When the site went down, only 515 votes separated leader Nasry Asfura of the National Party, from Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party. Neither of the two top candidates are from the Libre party of incumbent President Xiomara Castro, though Nasralla has been both rival and ally, serving for a couple years as her vice president.

The council said it has asked the contractor running the website to come up with a solution as soon as possible. In the meantime, the council said it is creating a space for media outlets to observe the vote counting process so the public can see what’s happening.

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social social media platform Monday: “Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election. If they do, there will be hell to pay!”

The U.S. president had earlier endorsed Asfura, saying he was the only candidate he could work with.

Asfura and Nasralla filled the official information void with their campaigns’ own numbers, each saying they were favored to win.