Honduras to recount presidential election votes

Election authorities in Honduras have agreed to recount the votes from the Nov. 24 presidential elections after receiving a fraud complaint from the opposition, local media said Monday.

 David Matamoros, head of the country's Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), pledged on Monday to "fulfill" a request by left-wing opposition candidate Xiomara Castro for a vote-by-vote recount, the La Prensa news website reported.

 On Saturday, ruling conservative party candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez was officially declared the winner of the election with 36.8 percent of votes, and Castro, from the Liberty and Refoundation Party, was declared the runner-up with 28.79 percent of the votes.

 According to the document submitted to the electoral court, the request for a recount "is due to the alterations that each tally has been subject to, (and) the vulnerability and insecurity of the system at the expense of the people's will, massively expressed at the polls."

 Both Castro and Hernandez declared victory on the night of the elections, with no news from the TSE on the outcome until the following day.

 With nearly 70 percent of the votes counted on Nov. 25, the agency said Hernandez was leading, adding though the result was not definitive, it showed "an irreversible trend."

 The TSE website was hacked Monday by Anonymous Honduras, which replaced the main page with a question mark above a torso wearing the presidential sash, urging Hondurans to peacefully protest the official results.