TEGUCIGALPA (AP) — The conservative candidate Nasry Asfura led the presidential election in Honduras on Thursday with a slight advantage of just 22,748 votes over the also conservative Salvador Nasralla, while the Central American country was still waiting for the outcome of the count.

Preliminary results gave Asfura, of the National Party, 40.24% of the votes compared to 39.42% of Nasralla, of the Liberal Party, after 86.24% of the minutes were scrutinized. The official candidate Rixi Moncada continued to lag behind with 19.32% support.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has a maximum of 30 days to issue a final declaration on the winner of the elections.

The two contending candidates – who have alternated at the head of the count – have respected the electoral body's call not to declare themselves winners, although both claimed to have all the records and consider themselves winners.

Nasralla, a 72-year-old former popular television presenter, said at a press conference on Thursday that the election is not yet defined and that all the minutes must be scrutinized. He commented that approximately 20% of those with inconsistencies would have to be subtracted from the total of the minutes scrutinized so far.

He assured that there are also many minutes from some sectors of the country in which, according to him, he is winning, but that the company in charge of the disclosure system—Grupo ASD—is delaying and has not included them in the official count.

The liberal leader stated that this time he has all the records in his possession that would prove his victory, unlike the 2017 election, when he only had 67% of the records, in an election in which Juan Orlando Hernández emerged victorious amid allegations of irregularities.

“If at the end of the count the election favors Tito Asfura, I am going to go and congratulate him, but that is not going to happen,” he stressed.

For her part, the candidate for designate or vice president of the National Party, María Antonieta Mejía, also pointed out in a press conference that the results favor Tito Asfura. “We are extremely happy, but out of respect for our adversaries we are going to wait for the National Electoral Council to give the official data,” he noted.

He called on the candidates and their bases not to generate more polarization in the country or sow more uncertainty in the Honduran people. "Let's respect the work that the councilors (of the CNE) are doing," he said.

The general elections in Honduras were held on Sunday to elect the new president and three presidential appointees or vice presidents, 128 deputies and an equal number of substitutes, and the 298 mayors and vice mayors.

On Tuesday, the website that the Honduran electoral authorities established to share the results of the vote experienced "technical problems" that caused its suspension. fall, leaving the public without information about the results of the presidential contest and other extremely close votes, the CNE reported.

Members of several peasant organizations held a sit-in on Thursday morning near the CNE collection center in rejection of the electoral body's results, which they consider "rigged," and they ignored the two candidates fighting for the presidency.

"This vote count is a mockery of the Honduran people. I believe that we cannot normalize electoral fraud in this country, if we let that happen today we will be condemned to live under the boot of those who have always put the yoke on the country," Wendy Cruz, leader of the Vía Campesina organization, told The Associated Press.

Later they went on a walk to the headquarters of the United States embassy because "they say they fight against drug trafficking and On the other hand, they let a capo go free,” added Cruz, referring to the release in the United States of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández.

One of the leaders who headed the platoon was Berta Zúniga, one of the daughters of the Lenca leader Berta Cáceres, murdered in March 2016 by individuals who entered her house in the department of Intibucá and shot her. A friend of the environmentalist, the Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto, was injured in the incident.

Berta Cáceres was a renowned indigenous activist, defender of the environment, ancestral peoples and human rights who in 2015 had been awarded the renowned Goldman Prize for her environmental work.

Seven perpetrators were convicted of the crime in 2018 and received sentences of up to 50 years in prison.

On Tuesday United States officials confirmed that former President Hernández, who was serving a sentence of 45 years in prison for drug trafficking, he had been released after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump.

Trump gave his support to Asfura days before the election, saying that he was the only candidate he could work with.