In recent hours, the National Electoral Council (CNE) rejected by majority vote a proposal from two of the three main political parties to conduct a recount of all 19,167 presidential ballots.

The CNE is comprised of the three major political forces in this Central American country: the right-wing National Party (PN) and Liberal Party (PL), which embody the century-old two-party system, and the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre, left-wing), of current President Xiomara Castro.

During their most recent plenary session, PL party magistrates Ana Hall and Cossette López challenged the request by Libre party council member Marlon Ochoa for a recount of all ballots in the presidential election, citing numerous irregularities detected in the voting records.

According to preliminary results released by the electoral authority, whose process has been suspended for several days, PN party presidential candidate Nasry Asfura, supported by US President Donald Trump, leads with 40.54 percent of the vote. Salvador Nasralla of the PL party trails closely with 39.19 percent. Like Libre, Nasralla has requested a recount of all ballots nationwide and accused the National Party of attempting to steal the election through fraud. Favored by most polls prior to the November 30 elections, Libre candidate Rixi Moncada is in third place with 19.29 percent of the vote. jdt/rc/edu