US calls for patience following Honduras vote

Most of the action surrounding the Honduran elections seem to be taking place on Twitter. As of right now, Juan Orlando Hernandez of the incumbent National Party still leads Xiomara Castro de Zelaya of the Libre Party. Sixty percent of the vote has been counted so far and Hernandez continues to have a comfortable lead of 6 percent or so.

The AP's Alberto Arce has the latest:

The two main competing parties continued to claim victory early in the day, then were not heard from again. No one even celebrated the announced lead of Juan Orlando Hernandez of the governing National Party, who had just over 34 percent of the votes. No balloons, no rallies, nothing.

His closest opponent in an eight-candidate field was Xiomara Castro, who had almost 29 percent of the votes. Castro's husband, former President Manuel Zelaya, was ousted in a 2009 coup that has left the country politically unstable. Castro didn't appear at all Monday, but Zelaya said their party would not accept the results.

"We will defend our triumph, and if it's necessary, we will do it in the streets," he said.

But only about 100 demonstrators rallied for Castro, and the capital's streets were otherwise quiet.

I'll stick with my too early to tell from Sunday night. I'd prefer to wait until most of the votes are counted and the allegations of corruption and fraud are investigated, at least to a certain extent. We don't need every single detail but waiting a few hours or days shouldn't be too much to ask. We all want to know who won and did that person win fairly.

However, two candidates claiming victory (Hernandez and Castro), two candidates claiming fraud (Castro and Nasralla), the snail's pace of the TSE, and premature congratulatory phone calls from OPM, Martinelli, Santos, and Ortega (I think that that they are all confirmed now) are not really helping. Nor is today's silence.

How about we just listen to the US State Department:

The United States congratulates the Honduran people for their peaceful participation in elections on November 24. Honduran and international observers, including those from the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, reported that the process was generally transparent, with strong voter turnout and broad participation by political parties.

The United States calls on Hondurans to await the completion of the counting of official results and to resolve election disputes peacefully through established legal processes.

The United States supports the democratic process and remains committed to continuing our cooperation with the Government and people of Honduras.

 Unfortunately, an extended period of vote counting is just going to fuel uncertainty, anxiety, fear and anger.