The presidential election in Honduras, located in Central America, has caused post-vote riots and put many lives in danger. Current Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez has decided to suspend all constitutional rights and has enforced a ten day curfew from 6pm to 6am with help from their military. Despite this, chaos has raged through the country’s capital.
An assumed scandal involving the counting of the election ballots have caused an uproar from the civilians. The opposition candidate of the presidential election, Salvador Nasralla called onto his supporters after claiming election fraud. Nasralla’s supporters have lit malls and stores on fire, forced people out of houses, supermarkets etc. Those spotted outside after hours have been ordered to be killed. In Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, protesters have lit tires on fire and used them as a blockade to roads and boulevards. Since, the government has called a state of emergency.
What happened with the votes?
95% of ballots were said to be counted by December 3rd. The other 5% left (1 031 boxes) to be counted is now supposed to be counted by hand. The recent ballots revealed that Hernandez had pulled ahead by 1.5%. However, a few days prior, Nasralla had been ahead by 5% with more than half the votes counted. As a result, Nasralla claims it to be election fraud and both claim to have won. The electoral court refuses to release final results until all ballots are counted, which endangers the lives of civilians in Honduras. This crisis hasn’t gotten enough attention, it’s extremely important to educate people on what’s going on internationally and not just what is in close range of where we live.
Update as of 12/5/2017 : Honduran Officials are supposedly going to handle the final vote counts