Marlon Ochoa, a member of Honduras’ National Electoral Council (CNE), denounced on Tuesday, December 23, an attempt to carry out an electoral coup by proposing to officially declare a president-elect, mayors, and members of parliament without completing the special recount or processing thousands of tally sheets. Ochoa described the measure as a “crime” and an “imprescriptible offense” of “treason against the nation,” attributing the pressure to “blatant and shameless” foreign interference.
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The denunciation centers on a summons issued by the CNE’s Secretary General, lawyer Telma Martínez—appointed by President Ana Paola Hall—for a plenary session to declare the results of the presidential, municipal, and legislative elections. However, 449 presidential tally sheets, 2,417 municipal tally sheets, and 7,901 legislative tally sheets remain to be processed, contradicting Article 283 of the Electoral Law, which mandates the analysis and verification of all 19,167 tally sheets generated during the process.
According to Ochoa, the proposal aims to declare winners with only 97.7% of the presidential tally sheets, 74.8% of the municipal tally sheets, and 58.8% of the legislative tally sheets processed—figures that do not meet the legal requirements for a valid declaration. “This isn’t a recount; it’s a farce,” the council member stated.
Irregularities in tally sheets and ballots have also been identified during the special recount. Ochoa revealed cases in which 100 ballots appeared marked in a single ballot box, even though only 30 voters were registered in the corresponding voter registry. Despite this, special verification and recount boards have refused to validate these results.
The council member also presented compromising audio recordings involving former president Juan Orlando Hernández—currently facing drug trafficking charges—and foreign presidential advisor Fernando Cerimedo, in which they allude to a “pattern of vote manipulation,” describing ballots that were “fixed” or “prepared” with no trace of actual use by voters.
Consumando el Golpe de Estado Electoral, sin resolver las solicitudes de impugnaciones, escrutinios especiales ni nulidades. Elevan al TJE sin petición de parte. Siempre hay alguien que presenta el documento inicial, como la renuncia falsa de @manuelzr en 2009. Tienen armado el… pic.twitter.com/KY7GT9HHRt
— Enrique Reina (@EnriqueReinaHN) December 23, 2025
“The pressure is coming primarily from abroad,” Ochoa emphasized, citing statements from the U.S. State Department, the OAS, the UN, and the European Union, all urging that “a winner be declared as soon as possible.” He also denounced that the U.S. government threatened economic sanctions if Nasry Asfura, the National Party candidate, was not elected, and sent text messages to remittance recipients warning of potential losses if the candidate aligned with Washington’s interests did not prevail.
Ochoa pointed out that council members Ana Paola Hall and Cosette López Osorio have not attended their duties for 13 days, limiting their communication to brief calls and faxes. The council member concluded that these actions constitute a “violation of respect for the sovereign will of the people.”
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