Original article: “Golpe de Estado electoral”: consejero hondureño acusa que impusieron un presidente sin terminar el conteo de votos

Honduran Electoral Advisor Claims ‘Electoral Coup’ After Presidential Announcement Without Full Vote Count

Marlon Ochoa, the principal advisor of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras, accused on Wednesday the occurrence of an ‘electoral coup’ following the announcement of right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura as the new president by his colleagues Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López.

The declaration made on the afternoon of December 24, amidst a severe credibility crisis, was reported by Ochoa to have occurred without completing the total vote count, without resolving thousands of challenges, and under what he termed as ‘imperial interference’. He asserted that this action ‘substituted the will of the people with imperial interests.’

‘Continuing their tradition of illegality, the representatives of the bipartisanship, Councilors Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López hurried to impose, from an embassy, the final presidential election declaration without completing the vote count and without having resolved the recount claims. Of course I understand that the United States and the elites allied with organized crime want a president who caters to their interests, regardless of whether it arises from an electoral coup,’ he stated in a message posted on his social media account X.

Announcement Made Without Completing Vote Count

In a videoconference session held on Christmas Eve, 24 days after the elections on November 30, councilors Ana Paola Hall (representing the Liberal Party) and Cossette López (from the National Party) approved moving forward with the official announcement of the presidential results, paving the way to proclaim Nasry Asfura of the National Party as president of Honduras for the term 2026-2030. The resolution was taken in the absence and without the signature of advisor Marlon Ochoa (from the ruling Libre Party), who has consistently denounced electoral fraud due to the alteration of records and data transmission that did not correspond with manual records.

The official was even replaced by a substitute, Carlos Enrique Cardona Hernández.

The two right-linked councilors, who had been hidden for all these days in a foreign embassy and held their session without turning on their cameras, opposed conducting a vote-by-vote recount to verify the inconsistencies affecting a large number of voting records.

According to the consolidated data presented, with 19,154 of the 19,167 processed records, Asfura—who received support from Donald Trump and belongs to the same party as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is currently sentenced to over 45 years for drug trafficking and was pardoned by the U.S. president—would have obtained 1,481,517 votes (40.26%), against 1,455,169 (39.54%) for Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, and 706,266 (19.19%) for Rixi Moncada from Libre. The difference between the top two candidates is only 0.72%, equivalent to 26,348 votes.

However, Ochoa claimed that the declaration is illegal and illegitimate. ‘What we are experiencing today is a new electoral coup,’ the official stated, adding that the two bipartisan councilors are being ‘instrumentalized to declare a new president without processing nearly 288 challenges.’

In additional statements, he highlighted the severity of the situation: ‘We received a letter from the CNE’s general secretary, Thelma Martínez, proposing that we commit a crime, convening a full session today at seven in the evening to declare a president, announce mayoral positions, and declare deputy levels, even though there are still 449 records left to process at the presidential level.’

Formal Complaint and Audios Revealing an ‘Illegal Framework’

Advisor Ochoa went to the Public Ministry (MP) to file a formal complaint against what he dubbed an ‘illegal framework aimed at sabotaging the election results’ detailing a series of electoral crimes, including coercion, forgery, foreign interference by the United States, abuse of authority, and malfeasance.

As part of the evidence, he presented 10 new audios that would expose orchestrated electoral fraud.

‘In these audios, one can hear the voice of a former president, the voice of a former presidential candidate from the Liberal Party, and the voice of a foreign presidential advisor (the Argentinian Fernando Cerimedo), among other unidentified voices,’ Ochoa indicated. These add to recordings previously released by the MP that would implicate councilor López in alleged manipulation.

‘What is even more serious is that when analyzing the total number of records where the number of voters coincides with the number of registered voters in the biometric device, the actual winner of the elections is not who they intend to declare as the president of the Republic,’ he accused.

The advisor emphasized the magnitude of the challenges and irregularities that were overlooked, among which are more than 10,000 challenges and two pending annulment actions, as well as a difference of less than 0.72% between Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla.

In fact, Nasralla himself rejected the CNE’s decision, arguing that it was issued without resolving nearly 10,000 claims that would involve more than two million votes. He further stated that they were not defeated ‘fair and square’ and that accepting the stability of the country does not mean legitimizing a process he described as corrupt.

From the Libre Party, President of the Legislative Power, Luis Redondo, termed the action as ‘an electoral coup and a betrayal of the homeland,’ asserting that it lacks legal value.

The lawmaker Iroska Elvir, Nasralla’s wife, sent a message to party members: ‘Let us not forget the complacent, the traitors.’

On her part, the president of Honduras Xiomara Castro reaffirmed that she will hand over power on January 27, 2026, ‘neither a day more nor a day less.’

‘I am convinced that as long as one of our compatriots continues to polish the boots of foreigners and considers remittances as a gift from the empire, we will never be independent,’ she warned.

Foreign Interference and Pressure from an Embassy

One of the most controversial aspects of the process was the location from which councilors Hall and López operated in the days leading up to the declaration. Ochoa maintained that ‘the decision was imposed from a diplomatic headquarters,’ referring to reports indicating that both had stayed for about 13 days in a foreign embassy in Tegucigalpa, citing alleged security reasons, thereby performing electoral functions from foreign territory.

The complaint also directly points to interference from the U.S. government. Ochoa linked the quick declaration with the ‘swift recognition’ granted by the White House to Asfura’s victory, who explicitly received support from President Donald Trump during the campaign.

‘Washington and power sectors allied with organized crime seek a leader who responds to their interests, even if it means endorsing an ‘electoral coup,’ he asserted.

‘The series of actions undertaken by the U.S. government against the will of the people in this election process does not end there; it continues with threats from the U.S. government that if their preferred candidate does not win, Hondurans would suffer economic sanctions, millions of text messages were sent to remittance receivers’ phones threatening that if Trump’s preferred candidate did not win, they would lose their remittances (nearly two million people),’ the counselor recalled.

International Omissions

In response to the accusations, CNE President Ana Paola Hall limited herself to rejecting them, asserting that the organization ‘does not elect presidents but merely validates the decision expressed by the people at the polls.’

The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (MOE-OEA) was also criticized for omissions in its reports.

Its head, Eladio Loizaga, stated they ‘did not observe malice or obvious manipulation of electoral material nor in the IT systems,’ without making substantial reference to the allegations of external interference or to more than 800 complaints for electoral crimes filed with the MP.

Political Crisis in Honduras

With the proclamation of Nasry Asfura, Honduras faces a power transition marked by distrust and political fracture. The 2025 elections, deemed by analysts as one of the most opaque processes since the return to democracy in 1982, leave a legacy of bitter disputes.

As constitutional lawyer Joaquín Mejía stated hours before the announcement: ‘These elections are already tainted with one of the largest and most indelible shadows in Honduras’ history. No democrat can be satisfied with this backward step,’ noted the portal Criterio.hn.

Marlon Ochoa, for his part, issued a historical warning: ‘Honduras will only be free, sovereign, and independent when Hondurans are the masters of their destiny.’ With his complaint, the ‘electoral coup’ perpetrated on Christmas Eve of 2025 is recorded as a chapter of maximum tension in the political chronicle of the Central American country.