Honduran electoral body acknowledges technical failures, but guarantees integrity of results

Tegucigalpa.- The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras, Ana Paola Hall, denounced the continuity of technical problems in the vote count of the general elections of November 30, although she assured that the results, which have remained unchanged since midnight with 99.40% of the count, were not compromised. Hall told reporters that on Monday night there were “two moments of difficulty” in contingency system 2, which were resolved quickly and without affecting the disclosure of results, occurring when processing the records of deputies corresponding to two departments. According to Hall, CNE technicians attributed both problems to the “considerable size” of the ballots, which caused “the system to misalign what had to be focused on to process both records.” Despite the technical problems, he assured that the disclosure of the preliminary results “was not compromised, adjustments were made in the following minutes, in both cases“. According to the latest official count from the CNE, which has remained unchanged since midnight, presidential candidate Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura, of the conservative National Party and who is supported by US President Donald Trump, leads the results with 1,298,835 votes (40.52%).

You may be interested in: Failures reveal fragility of the electoral system in Honduras

Following them is the candidate Salvador Nasralla, from the also conservative Liberal Party, with 1,256,428 votes (39.48%), and Rixi Moncada, candidate of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), who on Sunday said that she does not recognize the results, with 618,448 votes (19.29%). The electoral body has not officially informed when the special scrutiny of more than 2,600 records with inconsistencies, which could exceed 500,000 votes, will begin. Passwords were changed after report of irregularity
Regarding Nasralla’s complaint about alleged access to “privileged credentials” by a technician from the company responsible for the preliminary vote transmission, Hall explained that the situation was reported on December 7 and the “immediate change of passwords” was ordered.

“On December 7th, there was a report that a member of the ASD group asked a member of the CNE technical team to print the passwords of the different parties, the plenary was informed and, in session, the issue was clarified, the immediate change of passwords was ordered and that was done within minutes,” he emphasized.

Hours earlier, Nasralla called it an “electoral crime” that an employee of the company ASD had access to the system passwords, and assured that the vulnerability originated “from within”. Hall stated that although she presides over the electoral body, she cannot “interfere with the results to harm or favor anyone”, and clarified that even if she could, “she wouldn’t do it” nor would “the CNE team”. “I want to tell you that I will take care of every vote of those who are here and those who listen to us, with equal scrutiny and care. The team that accompanies me – and I am sure it is much larger than the one that could come today – will remain firm, taking care of your vote, the democracy of our country, peace and the National Electoral Council,” she concluded.