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The Financial Express

Violent clashes erupt in Honduras over poll result

| Updated: January 22, 2018 10:39:36


Supporters of Salvador Nasralla, presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, clash with riot police as they wait for official presidential election results in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, November 30, 2017. (REUTERS) Supporters of Salvador Nasralla, presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, clash with riot police as they wait for official presidential election results in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, November 30, 2017. (REUTERS)

Clashes have broken out in Honduras as demonstrators protesting President Juan Orlando Hernandez's re-election blocked roads in several locations and police moved into to break up the barricades.

Four police officers were injured Saturday, one seriously and at least seven demonstrators were detained, reports the Associated Press.

A local NGO in Saba, 210km (130 miles) north-east of the capital Tegucigalpa, said a 60-year-old man was killed and another person wounded when police opened fire on a roadblock, according to Reuters news agency.

Last month, incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez was awarded the electoral win despite days of street protests.

The November election has been widely criticised. Supporters of opposition leader Salvador Nasralla are deeply suspicious of the electoral tribunal that counted the ballots, says a BBC report.

Nasralla initially established a lead as the votes were being counted, but this quickly diminished and he accused the authorities of manipulating the results.

Thousands of people took to the streets in rival demonstrations following the election.

Former President Manuel Zelaya has supported protests on behalf of presidential candidate Nasralla.

Human rights group Amnesty International says 14 people died in the clashes, but police say only three have died.

President Hernández, 49, has been in power since 2013, and is the first president to run for a second term after the country's Supreme Court lifted a ban on re-election.

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