Nasralla refuses to accept controversial Honduras election results

Nearly one month after Honduras' November 26 elections and weeks marked by violent demonstrations and protester clashes with police, opposition challenger Salvador Nasralla refuses to concede to incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernández, despite the latter's certification Sunday as official victor by the election board (TSE).

That action has done little to dissuade Nasralla supporters from crying fraud and calling for new elections, sentiments reinforced in a response Sunday from the secretary general of the OAS Luis Almagro, saying it was "impossible to determine the winner with the necessary certainty."

"The only possible way for the victor to be the Honduran people would be to call for new general elections within the strictest respect for the rule of law and with guarantees that TSE is technically capable and has the confidence of the people and the political parties," reads Almagro's statement.

After a brief trip to press his case at OAS headquarters in Washington DC, Nasralla returned to Honduran capital Tegucigalpa and declared Wednesday he would not meet with Hernández for a dialogue on the election, as the incumbent had requested.

"I will meet with him [Hernández] only if he accepts that he lost and that I won and that we have to hold new elections, otherwise there will be no dialogue," said Nasralla, as reported by local daily La Prensa.

In Washington Nasralla urged other nations not to acknowledge Hernandez' victory, winning over some US legislators, including Vermont senator Patrick Leahy who issued a statement saying the TSE proclamation "leaves too many questions unanswered."

However, a US state department statement from Dec. 18 did not appear to favor either side, calling for an end to violent protests.

"We understand this decision triggers a five-day period, as established by Honduran law, to present any challenges to the election result. We encourage political parties to use this avenue to raise any concerns they may have," reads the statement from US state department spokesperson Heather Nauert.

"We call for all Hondurans to refrain from violence. We urge all political parties and leaders to stress to their supporters the need to resolve their differences peacefully," said Nauert. "It is also important the government ensure Honduran security services respect the rights of peaceful protesters."

La Prensa also reported Wednesday that an anonymous source within the US state department said they had not seen any evidence to support changing the outcome of the election.

"On this issue, we haven't seen, according to our understanding of the two reports from the observer missions, anything that would alter the final result issued by the [TSE]," said the unnamed official, referring to reports from the OAS and the EU observer missions.

Pictured: Riot police and soldiers in Tegucigalpa stand by on Wednesday as supporters of the presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, Salvador Nasralla, hold a demonstration outside the headquarters of the joint chiefs of staff of the armed forces to protest deaths that have occurred in clashes between demonstrators and the security forces since the elections.