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href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Honduras-Election-Court-Sides-With-Fraud-Candidate-Hernandez-as-Protests-Rage-On-20171217-0022.html">https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Honduras-Election-Court-Sides-With-Fraud-Candidate-Hernandez-as-Protests-Rage-On-20171217-0022.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Honduras Election Court Sides With 'Fraud'
Candidate Hernandez as Protests Rage On<br>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time">Published 17 December 2017 </div>
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<p>The Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Honduras or TSE has
officially declared that lawyer and incumbent President
Juan Orlando Hernandez has won the country's
scandal-plagued presidential elections which resulted in
weeks of unrest and accusations of fraud by the
country's broad leftist popular forces who united behind
contender Salvador Nasralla.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>RELATED: </strong><br>
<a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Honduras-Opposition-Supporters-Hold-Nationwide-Protests-20171215-0006.html">Honduras:
Opposition Supporters Hold Nationwide Protests</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to the TSE's official ballot count, Hernandez
won the Nov. 26 elections with 1,410,888 votes amounting
to 42.95 percent of total ballots cast, narrowly beating
Nasralla by a razor-thin margin of 1.53 percentage
points.</p>
<p>Hernandez, a 49-year-old lawyer with middle-class
social roots, has a “law and order” reputation for
having spearheaded a harsh crackdown on drug cartels and
criminal gangs during his first term in office.</p>
<p>While Nasralla, a 64-year-old journalist and
businessman, is one of Honduras’ best-known faces and
was backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, a leftist
ousted in a Washington-backed coup in 2009.</p>
<p>Amid the controversial declaration of victory, head of
the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of
American States (EOM/OAS) in Honduras and former
Bolivian President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga said, in a
presser, that a number of unexplained discrepancies were
found in the electoral process.</p>
<p>Quiroga explained that the absence of an audit trail
creates additional challenges to properly assessing the
result of the polls and the entire process will be
examined by the mission.</p>
<p>The lead observer fingered quality control during the
election as a major issue regarding obtaining clearly
established figures, adding that the systems and
procedures may not have been equipped to shoulder the
process workload.</p>
<p>The announcement will likely feed the unrest that's
engulfed city centers across Honduras, where popular
forces have united behind an Opposition Alliance that
has held massive protests while accusing the government
of using gangs to terrorize the population and engage in
looting in an attempt to delegitimize the pro-Nasralla
forces.</p>
<p>Reacting to the TSE's announcement, Zelaya tweeted a
call for immediate street mobilizations across the
country "in all public places." The popular former
president remains a powerful figure in the Opposition
Alliance.</p>
<p>Zelaya later said during a press conference that "We
are in another of the most important moments of our
history (...) The solution to this national tragedy is
in the hands of the Honduran people," the ex-president
reiterated.</p>
<p>On Sunday, Nasralla traveled to Washington, D.C. to
meet with Secretary-General of the Organization of
American States Luis Almagro to personally convey his
disappointment with what he described as the "fraud"
that characterized the country's electoral process.</p>
<p>"Serious questions" still surround the results of
Honduras' presidential elections last month, Almagro
tweeted on Sunday.</p>
<p>Just prior to the election, Nasralla appeared set for
an upset victory over Hernandez. However, the
ballot-counting process suddenly halted for more than a
day and began leaning in favor of Hernandez after
resuming.</p>
<div>
<figure class="image"><img alt="" data-height="332"
data-size="w:569,h:332" data-width="569"
src="https://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/12/17/manuelzr.png_1044102919.png"
title="" vspace="5" hspace="5"><figcaption><strong>"The
people say: 'JOH is not our President,' we must
mobilize immediately in all public places. They
are violating the will of the people."</strong></figcaption></figure>
</div>
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<p>Nasralla said that if the TSE proclaimed him to be
president-elect of Honduras he would return to the
capital Tegucigalpa for celebrations, but if Hernandez
is declared winner he would “humbly return to see the
reaction of the people".</p>
<p>He also said that while visiting the United States he
would meet with representatives of the State Department
and human rights organizations to seek a solution to the
political crisis which has left at least 18 people dead.</p>
<p>"Among all the possible solutions to the crisis, none
allows for the whitewashing of an electoral process
characterized by serious crimes committed by different
people under the auspices of the Electoral Tribunal,
which has sought – regardless of the costs and the risks
– to impose these fraudulent election results," he
added.</p>
<p>The opposition candidate also stressed that he would
act "with responsibility and a patriotic sense to seek a
peaceful solution to the problem caused by their
intention to illegally remain in power at any cost –
regardless of the humanitarian, economic, social and
political consequences for democracy."</p>
<p>"It is clear that there was fraud before, during and
after the elections (...) The President of the Republic
at this moment is an impostor, and the Honduran people
know it," Nasralla said in a video posted on
the Facebook.</p>
<p>Following the 2009 coup that ousted Zelaya, Honduras
was plunged into a brutal cycle of violence where
vulnerable civilians – including Indigenous people,
social rights fighters and human rights defenders – were
targeted for murder in the thousands. The Central
American country became deeply mired in endemic poverty
and criminal activity by violent drug gangs as it earned
the ignominious title of being the “murder capital of
the world.”</p>
<p>The country also hemorrhaged desperate migrants and
refugees – including many children who were
unaccompanied by parents – desperate to flee the brutal
social conditions reinforced by the U.S.-installed
neocolonial government that took the place of Zelaya's
center-left administration.</p>
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