Honduras' presidential election remained deadlocked late on December 1 with two conservative candidates separated by just 515 votes, as election officials urged patience whilst they complete a hand count of ballots amid unfounded claims from US President Donald Trump of electoral irregularities.

With 57% of ballots tallied, Nasry Asfura of the National Party garnered 749,022 votes or 39.91%, narrowly ahead of Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, who secured 748,507 votes or 39.89%, according to Honduras' National Electoral Council (CNE).

Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the ruling leftist LIBRE party backed by incumbent President Xiomara Castro, came in distant third with 19% of the vote, signalling what now appears like an inevitable rightward shift in the country.

Trump intervened in the Central American nation's election on December 1 night, claiming without evidence that Honduran officials had "abruptly stopped counting" votes and warning "there will be hell to pay" if results were changed. The president has publicly endorsed Asfura, threatened to cut off US funding if his pick did not win, and called Nasralla, a centre-right politician, a "borderline Communist."

However, CNE member Cossette López Osorio attributed the pause in preliminary results to a technical failure on the dissemination platform, not an intentional stoppage. She told CNN the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission system was scheduled to suspend temporarily at 6:00 AM for processing before resuming at 9:00 AM.

"There was no decision made in this regard. It is not an express decision of the National Electoral Council; it is literally a technical failure on the dissemination platform," López Osorio said.

According to the New York Times, the country's electoral process involves initial digital reporting from polling stations, followed by manual verification of all votes. Complete digital transmission is hindered by unreliable internet access in some regions.

CNE president Ana Paola Hall described the race as a "technical tie" and said officials had finished reporting the first tranche of digitally transmitted votes in the afternoon, nearly nine hours before Trump's social media post.

"In the face of this technical tie, we must remain calm, have patience, and wait for the CNE to finish counting," Hall wrote online, praising the nation for its peaceful response.

More than six million Hondurans were registered to vote for president, 298 mayors and 128 members of the National Congress.

International election observers said the vote had few issues and pledged to continue monitoring the count. Despite the razor-thin margin, the country remained peaceful, with merchants starting to take down boards they had placed over shop windows as a precaution.

The calm stood in contrast to concerns ahead of the vote that the election could be contested after candidates repeatedly accused one another of planning to rig results. Those worries had raised fears Honduras could see a repeat of unrest following the 2017 election, when a similar delay in vote counting sparked disputed results and destructive protests.

López Osorio said approximately 43% of tally sheets remained to be processed due to the technical incident, whilst the remaining 57% had been scanned and transmitted normally. She emphasised that physical backups of each ballot exist for manual verification.

The CNE has 30 days to release final results from the November 30 election, though officials indicated results could be declared before Christmas if counting proceeds smoothly.

In a separate development, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was released on December 1 from a federal prison in Pennsylvania after receiving a full pardon from Trump. Hernández had been serving a 45-year sentence on drug trafficking and weapons charges following his conviction in March 2024.

The controversial former leader, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, belongs to Asfura's National Party, but the candidate tipped for victory has denied links to the controversial former leader. "The party is not responsible for his personal actions," Asfura said.

Trump announced last week he would pardon Hernández, claiming the Biden administration had "set a trap" for the former president.

Honduras conducts elections without a run-off, meaning the candidate with the largest share of votes secures the presidency.