President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been declared the winner of Honduras' disputed election after three weeks of uncertainty and unrest in which at least 17 people died in protests amid the opposition's allegations of vote fraud.
According to the court's official count, Hernandez won with 42.95 percent to 41.42 for runner-up Salvador Nasralla, who well before the announcement had challenged the result and said he would not recognise it.
There was no immediate public comment by Hernandez, whose sister Hilda Hernandez, a cabinet minister, died Saturday in a helicopter crash.
The first results reported by the electoral court before dawn the day after the November 26 election showed Nasralla with a significant lead over Hernandez with nearly 60 per cent of the vote counted.
Then public updates of the count mysteriously stopped for more than a day, and when they resumed, that lead steadily eroded and ultimately reversed in Hernandez's favour.
The electoral court recently conducted a recount of ballot boxes that presented irregularities and said there was virtually no change to its count. Since then it had been considering challenges filed by candidates.
Hernandez, a 49-year-old businessman and former politician, took office in January 2014 and built support largely on a drop in violence in this impoverished Central American country.
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