Honduran President Hernández Signs OAS Agreement on Election Recount

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Dec. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández signed a second agreement with the Organization of American States, or OAS, vowing to respect the Honduran Supreme Electoral Tribunal's recount process. President Hernández's opponent, Alianza party candidate Salvador Nasralla, has refused to sign the agreement.

President Hernández also thanked eight sovereign governments from across Latin America for supporting Honduras's electoral review process.

The OAS agreement, signed by President Hernández on December 5, provides that 1,006 ballot boxes contested by the Alianza party early this week will be recounted. An additional 5,174 ballot boxes challenged by the Alianza party midweek will also be recounted.

The agreement also calls on candidates to "publicly recognize their support for prosecution of those who have committed acts of vandalism, completed or attempted, or complicity in such acts, targeting the electoral process."

This is the second time Mr. Nasralla has backed away from an OAS agreement. On November 29, he pledged to the OAS to respect the Supreme Electoral Tribunal's official results but reneged a few hours later.

In a joint statement released December 6, the governments of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay offered their support for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal's decision "to proceed with a full recount of all the challenged voting records in the most recent presidential elections," overseen by the OAS.

On December 5, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, issued a letter expressing support for Mr. Nasralla. The guerilla group, which has ties to drug trafficking and extortion, alleges that the OAS is overseeing a fraudulent election.  

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SOURCE Republic of Honduras