Armed forces threatened arrests over “Zero Tally Sheets” during presidential vote count.
On Monday, the Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre) and the Liberal Party said members of the Honduran Armed Forces threatened immediate arrests of members of the Special Verification and Recount Boards (JVR), who are working on the count of votes from the presidential elections held in November.
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The threats arose because JVR members were submitting so-called “Zero Tally Sheets,” which are part of a legal procedure used when serious inconsistencies are detected at polling stations.
The complaining organizations warned that the actions of the military violate their constitutional mandate, which establishes that their role is to guarantee the security of the electoral process and the defense of free suffrage, but not to intervene in technical decisions or intimidate those involved in the vote count.
In a video, the Libre party said its representatives were verbally assaulted by military personnel, who warned them not to submit annulled votes or Zero Tally Sheets under threat of being removed from the polling tables and jailed.
Those statements were corroborated by reports from teleSUR correspondent Karim Duarte, who said at least 200 members of the Liberal Party received similar threats at vote-counting centers.
The arbitrary ban on Zero Tally Sheets shows political bias and undue interference aimed at altering the final results of the electoral process.
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— Orinoco Tribune (@OrinocoTribune) December 20, 2025
The Special Boards are authorized to issue Zero Tally Sheets when irreconcilable inconsistencies exist, such as missing signatures, discrepancies between voter booklets and tally sheets, contradictory data, or a formal declaration of nullity. Far from being an irregularity, Zero Tally Sheets protect the integrity of the vote and the will of the people.
Amid the crisis, National Electoral Council member Marlon Ochoa announced he will challenge the results and refused to validate a fraudulent process overseen by external interests.
“Not even if they take me to that plenary session at gunpoint will they make me validate a fraud,” Ochoa said, asserting that these elections are the dirtiest and least transparent in Honduran history.
Ochoa linked the current situation to U.S. interference, questioning political pressure from Washington and recalling that former President Juan Orlando Hernandez — convicted of drug trafficking in the United States — was recently pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ochoa insisted that the only legitimate way out of Honduras’ political crisis is a recount of all the votes from the country’s 19,167 polling stations. He said the recount is necessary because of discrepancies between the voter registry and the reported figures, as well as recurring failures of the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission System (TREP).
Meanwhile, representatives of the Liberal Party remained gathered outside the National Vocational Training Institute (INFOP), demanding access from the electoral authority to clarify irregularities in more than 2,000 tally sheets.
From early Monday, accredited delegations from departments such as Comayagua, Choluteca, Cortes, Francisco Morazan, and Atlantida reiterated that they are prepared to defend the will expressed at the ballot box, saying their presidential candidate, Salvador Nasralla, won the election.
#FromTheSouth News Bits | Honduras: More than three weeks after the general elections, the National Electoral Council (CNE) began a special recount of thousands of voting records that showed inconsistencies. pic.twitter.com/lQpXTOdDR0
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 22, 2025
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: teleSUR – El Ciudadano
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