TEGUCIGALPA (AP) — A day after Honduran electoral authorities stopped providing vote count updates in the presidential election due to “technical problems,” candidate Salvador Nasralla of the conservative Liberal Party had a slight lead Tuesday over Nasry Asfura, the National Party candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

After counting ballots from 69% of voting centers, Nasralla had the lead. 40.16% of preferences compared to 39.71% for Asfura. Just over 10,000 votes separate the two conservative candidates. Rixi Moncada, of the ruling Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), was in third place with 19.07% of the votes.

A group of liberals took to the streets at night with torches, near where the Liberal Party's campaign command is located, as a show of support for Nasralla.

“No one can take Salvita away,” shouted those attending the peaceful demonstration.

The website that Honduran electoral authorities established to share the results of the vote experienced “technical problems” that caused it to crash, leaving the public without information about the results of the presidential race and other extremely close votes, the National Electoral Council (CNE) reported Tuesday morning.

The website began updating the vote count shortly after polls closed in Sunday's election, but it went down around noon Monday and there were no official updates until Tuesday afternoon.

At the time of the site's fall, only 515 votes separated the leader Asfura from Nasralla. Neither man belongs to President Xiomara Castro's LIBRE party, although Nasralla has been both a rival and an ally, serving for a couple of years as her vice president.

The CNE said it has asked the contractor managing the website to find a solution as soon as possible. In the meantime, he is creating a space for the media to observe the vote counting from where it is being done, with the goal that the population can see what is happening.

While the website was down, Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social on Monday: “It appears that Honduras is trying to alter the results of its presidential election. If they do, there will be serious consequences!”

The US president had thrown his support behind Asfura, saying he was the only candidate he could work with.

Asfura and Nasralla filled the void of official information with their own campaign numbers, each saying he was the favorite.

Hours earlier on Tuesday, US officials confirmed that former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence in prison for drug trafficking, had been released after receiving a pardon from Trump.

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AP journalist Marlon González contributed to this story.