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Senior Honduran official rejects new election call amid protests

A military police removes a burning tire from a barricade settled by opposition supporters during a protest after the country's electoral tribunal declared conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez the official winner of a bitterly contested presidential vote, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera

By Gustavo Palencia TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A senior Honduran government official ruled out a new presidential election on Monday, the day after the Organization of American States called for one following a contentious Nov. 26 vote that has sparked violent protests. Electoral authorities said on Sunday that U.S-friendly President Juan Orlando Hernandez won the election after partial recounts of voting tallies did not tip results in favor of his opponent, TV host Salvador Nasralla, despite widespread allegations of irregularities. Hours later, however, the OAS said the process did not meet democratic standards. First Vice President Ricardo Alvarez flatly rejected the call for another vote: "The only other elections there are going to be in this country will be on the last Sunday of November 2021 ... "This is an autonomous and sovereign nation," Alvarez told reporters. "This is a nation that is not going to do what anybody from an international organization tells it to do." Opposition politicians hurled accusations of voter fraud at the government, and Honduran military police fired tear gas at protesters, who burned tires and attacked buildings. Adding to the confusion, European Union election observers on Sunday said the vote recount showed no irregularities. Like the OAS, the EU observers monitored the electoral process in Honduras. EU monitor chief Marisa Matias said on Monday that it was beyond her team's mandate to say whether there should be a new election, adding that up to two months were needed to finish a final report. PROTESTS Furious that Hernandez had been declared the winner, protesters clashed with police in capital city Tegucigalpa, blocked roads around the Central American country's main port, and partially burned a courthouse and bank branch in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city. "We are not going to stop protesting," said Antonio Tejada, 30, his face covered with a red bandana in the center of the capital. "We are not going to let them steal the election from Salvador Nasralla or keep Juan Orlando Hernandez in power." Nearby, military police cleared rocks and burning tires from the streets. Nasralla leads a center-left coalition that seemed headed for a surprise upset in the hours after the election, but results suddenly stopped coming in. When they restarted, the outcome began to favor the incumbent. Honduras has been roiled by political instability and violent protests since then. The count has been questioned by the two main opposition parties, including Nasralla's Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, as well as a wide swath of the diplomatic corps. The OAS statement described irregularities, including deliberate human intrusions in the electoral computer system, pouches of votes opened or lacking votes, and "extreme" improbability around voting patterns it analyzed, making it "impossible to determine with the necessary certainty the winner." Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who supports Nasralla, said on Monday that the protesters should not back down. However, Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup in 2009, said the Alliance was ready to accept new elections if Nasralla, who was meeting U.S. and OAS officials in Washington on Monday, agrees. "We would accept that to guarantee peace," Zelaya said on a television show. "The Honduran people don't want war; we don't want war." The election marks the start of a voting season in Latin America, where more than two-thirds of the region's population will elect new leaders over the next 12 months. (Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Von Ahn)