Tegucigalpa, Dec 3 (EFE).- Honduran authorities reinforced security on Wednesday around the hotel where the vote recount in the general elections is taking place, awaiting the conclusion of the tally that gives a narrow lead to candidate Salvador Nasralla over Nasry Asfura, and after small peaceful demonstrations were registered in the country. Nasralla, from the Liberal Party, had received 1,017,429 votes (40.34%) compared to Asfura's 997,873 (39.57%), the candidate from the also conservative National Party who enjoys the support of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to data from the National Electoral Council (CNE) with a count close to 80%. Dozens of police, including some anti-riot officers, have been deployed in the vicinity of the central hotel where the CNE has set up and enabled a press-only room with the aim of projecting on several screens the progress of the vote count, which was reactivated the previous day after hours of paralysis. In the morning of this Wednesday, a water cannon from the Honduran National Police was also parked, as witnessed by EFE. The police reinforcement comes after on Tuesday night a group of Nasralla supporters arrived at the grounds of that hotel carrying torches and the red and white flags of the Liberal Party in a peaceful demonstration. In front of the central hotel in Tegucigalpa, a militant of the ruling leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), whose candidate, Rixi Moncada, remains in third place with only 19% of the votes, began a hunger strike inside a coffin in protest of the preliminary results, which he considers manipulated. «What the National Electoral Council is doing 100 meters from here is a farce,» said the leftist militant sheltered in the coffin with a black-and-red flag of the Libre Party, and who will maintain the fast «for as long as is sufficient and necessary.» Accompanied by the song 'The people united, will never be defeated' by the Chilean band Quilapayún, the activist denounced a presumed U.S. interference in the Honduran elections, after President Donald Trump gave his public support to Asfura. «The only thing they are discussing is which of the two (conservatives) is going to win,» said the leftist activist sheltered in the coffin with a black-and-red flag of the Libre Party, and who will maintain the fast «for as long as is sufficient and necessary.» To what was recorded around the hotel where the CNE is concentrated, a street protest is added, last night in San Pedro Sula, north of the country, where a small group of individuals caused damage to two commercial establishments and burned garbage in front of the cathedral, 100 meters from the city hall. No group claimed responsibility for the protest and the atmosphere on Wednesday is quite calm in the country, according to local press.
