The Left claims victory in the Honduras vote, setting up a confrontation with the National Party: NPR

Liberal Party presidential candidate Xiomara Castro greets her supporters after the general election, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sunday. Castro claimed victory, setting up a confrontation with the National Party that said its candidate had won a vote that could end 12 years of conservative rule.

Moises Castillo / AP

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Moises Castillo / AP

Liberal Party presidential candidate Xiomara Castro greets her supporters after the general election, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sunday. Castro claimed victory, setting up a confrontation with the National Party that said its candidate had won a vote that could end 12 years of conservative rule.

Moises Castillo / AP

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Left-wing opposition candidate Xiomara Castro claimed victory in Honduras’ presidential election on Sunday, setting up a head-to-head with the National Party that said its candidate had won a landslide victory. The vote could end 12 years of Conservative rule.

“We win! We win!” Castro, the former first lady of Honduras who is running for president for the third time, told Liberal and Reconstruction party supporters were cheering. “Today the people have done justice. We have reversed authoritarianism.”

Honduras’ long-ruling National Party announced on its Twitter account that its candidate, Mayor Tegucigalpa Nasry Asfura, had won.

But preliminary results released by the Electoral Council late on Sunday showed that with 40% of the vote, Castro had 53% of the vote and Asfura 34%. The council said voter turnout was more than 68%.

Thousands of people gathered on the capital’s Morazan Boulevard blowing car horns, waving red Libre flags and setting off fireworks. Near midnight, the streets continued to fill with celebratory Castro supporters.

In anticipation of the vandalism, several businesses along the avenue covered their windows with wood or sheet metal, but the celebration appeared peaceful.

The National Party said it would hold a press conference on Monday.

The competing victory claims come just hours after the National Elections Board reminded the parties that such announcements are prohibited and violators will be fined. The statements raised concerns about protests and violence in the streets.

In 2017, after an unusually long election, protesters flooded the streets and the government imposed a curfew. Three weeks later, outgoing President Orlando Hernández was declared the winner despite calls for a re-election by an observer mission from the Organization of American States. At least 23 people were killed.

Late Sunday, Castro promised a long-term dialogue with the people of Honduras and said that starting Monday, she would like to open conversations with all sectors of society and international organizations to find a solution. for the Central American country, which is recovering from two major hurricanes, troubled by gangs and suffering from high corruption and poverty. Her husband, the former president ousted by a military coup in 2009, did not appear on stage with her.

Castro aroused a wave of discontent with 12 years of rule by the Kuomintang. Hernández has become a national embarrassment with US federal prosecutors in New York accusing him of running a drug state and fueling his own political rise with drug money. Hernández has denied it all and has not been formally charged, but that could change once he leaves office.

And many believe Hernández is not their rightful president. A friendly court ignored the constitutional ban on re-election, and Hernández won a 2017 election rife with irregularities that were nonetheless quickly recognized by America’s Trump administration.

In addition to a new president, Hondurans on Sunday chose a new parliament, new representation for the Central American Parliament and a host of local races.

Before that, in the often violent residential area of ​​Reparto Abajo of the capital, at least 200 voters were still lined up around the block waiting for their chance on Sunday night. Polls were originally scheduled to close at 5pm, but the National Electoral Council and international observers urged all those still in line to be allowed to vote.

At the gates of the Republic of Chile school, an increasingly heated crowd debated whether to continue voting.

Some shouted: “We want to vote!” Others shouted: “Closed time!” The parties were partisan with Nationalist fighters wanting to stop voting and their opponents wanting the vote to continue.

All day long, election observers and candidates have called for a peaceful vote and respect for the process.

Luis Guillermo Solis, former president of Costa Rica and leader of the Organization of American States’ observation mission, said on Sunday morning, “We’ve been at various (voting) centers and we’re see more or less the same, long lines of people exercising their citizenship.”

The council also confirmed in a statement that a website that allowed voters to see where they were supposed to cast their ballots had failed and that an initial investigation revealed an attack on the servers. Complaints about the site crash began on Saturday.

A short drive from the tense Chilean school scene, the vote is taking place peacefully in the San Pablo neighborhood.

Emily Armijo was one of the last to cast her vote. She ran in after discovering that her polling place had changed and feared she would miss her first chance to vote.

Armijo, who studies medicine and nutrition, said party and family commitments kept her from voting until the end of the day.

“I think we need a change,” said Armijo. She said too often only bad things get attention in Honduras. “So today’s vote action will be an opportunity to change that.”