HONDURAS: Hondurans waited Monday to learn who would be their next president after both the leftist TV anchor-turned-politician Salvador Nasralla and the incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez claimed victory -- and as the ballot count dragged on.
Sunday's election in a central American country wracked by gang violence passed off peacefully, but took a turn towards the dramatic when much-delayed initial figures released early Monday showed Nasralla unexpectedly in front.
The opposition has denounced the Constitutional Court's decision to allow Hernandez to run again for president despite a one-term limit, a move that sparked fears of a crisis in the crime-wracked country.
"We have never arrived at two in the morning without having results from the count," said Eugenio Sosa, a sociologist at the National University, who said the length of time it took to release the figures had aroused suspicions of possible fraud.
To make matters worse, both candidates had claimed victory in the absence of any announcement of initial results.
With 57 percent of the ballots counted Monday, the TV star had claimed 45.17 percent of votes compared to Hernandez's 40.21 percent, according to the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
Minutes before the initial figures were released, the 49-year-old Hernandez reassured his supporters in the capital Tegucigalpa that he was ahead, after having already declared himself the winner.
Backers of the 64-year-old Nasralla -- who represents the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship coalition -- meanwhile chanted victory slogans and carried red party flags.
"If the trends do not change, I can tell you that I will be the new president of Honduras," Nasralla said.
- Vote irregularities? -
Analyst Marvin Barahona said the TSE had left themselves open to allegations of trying to "hide results" when they neglected to provide partial results once 40 percent of the vote had been counted on Sunday.
Former Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga, head of the observer mission of the Organization of American States, urged Hondurans to wait calmly for the TSE to announce the final tally.
"There has been a partial calculation in the presidential election -- the result is tight. The rest of the ballots must be processed so that the result of the popular will is respected," Quiroga said.
The streets and cafes of Tegucigalpa were abuzz Monday with news of the election and the possibility of victory for Nasralla, who presents a popular game show and sports program.
"I am a nationalist (Hernandez supporter) but if Salvador Nasralla wins, then we should welcome him. As long as he behaves well with us as a leader, then we accept him," said Juan Ramon Lopez, a 65-year-old newspaper distributor.
For Sosa, Nasralla's apparent breakthrough is explained by the fact that voters see him as a refreshing change, and because of his close ties with former president Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in a 2009 coup but remains a popular figure.
He also said it represented a rejection of the excesses attributed to Hernandez's presidency, even though people support his battle against the country's pervasive gangs.
"Hernandez has experience. He sold some things well, such as security, but citizens are afraid of his willingness to violate the law and the constitution," said Sosa.
An estimated six million people were eligible to cast ballots, electing not just a president but also three vice presidents, members of Congress, and nearly 300 mayors.
- Simmering tensions -
Hernandez's conservative National Party -- which controls the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government -- contends that a 2015 Supreme Court ruling allows his re-election.
The opposition has denounced his bid, saying the court does not have the power to overrule the 1982 constitution.
Hernandez's main rivals -- Nasralla and Luis Zelaya, 50, of the right-leaning Liberal Party -- had both said before the vote that they would not recognize a Hernandez victory.
Nasralla, while visiting voting stations around the capital to rally his supporters, urged them to be vigilant for signs of fraud.
"They are out here offering poor people food, roof tiles or cement in exchange for their vote," he complained.
Honduras, in the heart of the "Northern Triangle" of Central America where gangs and poverty are rife, has one of the highest murder rates in the world, though that rate has fallen during Hernandez's tenure.
What credit he claims from that progress is counterbalanced by tensions over the 2009 coup.
Zelaya -- who was deposed by the armed forces with backing from the right and from powerful businessmen, for nudging closer to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez -- was notably accused of wanting to change the constitution to vie for a second term.