Honduras concludes vote count without any winner declared

Honduras on Monday finally concluded a much-delayed count from a presidential election held more than a week ago, but refrained from declaring incumbent leader Juan Orlando Hernandez the outright winner as soldiers tried to keep a lid on simmering post-poll unrest.

Observers cannot be certain of the results of Honduras' November 26 presidential vote due to irregularities, errors and systematic problems, the top representative of the Organization of America States (OAS) in Honduras said.

Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga and head of the OAS mission to Honduras told reporters that electoral authorities should carry out a wider recount after a ballot count pointed to a win for incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez.

The small Central American nation of 10 million, which suffers chronic violence and prolific gang activity, has been put under nighttime curfew after clashes during protests and some reports of looting.

On Friday, a 19-year-old woman was fatally shot during a confrontation between protesters and the police. 

Her family said she was killed by police, a claim authorities are "exhaustively" investigating.

On Monday, police said two officers were fatally shot by unidentified assailants while patrolling during the curfew in the eastern province of Olancho. The deaths were not immediately linked to the political unrest.

No opposition representatives

Nasralla and supporters of his leftist Alliance of Opposition Against Dictatorship did not send representatives to the Sunday count and have called for a far broader recount.

Nasralla told a big rally in the capital Tegucigalpa that the magistrates of the electoral tribunal "are employees of President (Juan Orlando) Hernandez," who ran for re-election despite a constitutional ban on doing so.

"The tribunal is not an independent organism and as such is neither credible nor trustworthy for the people," Nasralla said.

Matamoros said, "We have been patient and prudent in waiting for the Alliance's decision and they have not showed up for this vote count."

Curfew

Hernandez's government is enforcing a 10-day curfew from 6 pm to 6 am seeking to quell demonstrations. The curfew was dropped on Saturday for the country's two main tourist areas, the Bay Islands and the Mayan ruins of Copan.

Late Saturday, the capital had a night of pot-banging protests over the delays in the vote count, and the sound of bottle-rockets and chants echoed across the city.

Clashes between protesters and troops killed at least one person, and perhaps as many as a half dozen.

The Central American country struggles with violent drug gangs, one of world's highest murder rates and endemic poverty, driving a tide of Hondurans to migrate to the United States.

Hernandez, 49, implemented a military-led crackdown on gang violence after taking office in 2014. 

He has been supported by US President Donald Trump's chief of staff John Kelly since Kelly was a top general in the previous administration.

The 64-year-old Nasralla is one of Honduras' best-known faces and is backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, a leftist ousted in a coup in 2009.