Conservative lawmaker in Honduras injured after being hit with explosive 

A Honduran lawmaker has been injured after an unidentified assailant threw what appeared to be an explosive device into an outdoor hallway in the legislature where members of the conservative National Party were holding a news briefing.

“The National Party of Honduras condemns all acts of political violence that threaten the life, integrity, and democratic institutions of the country,” the party said in a statement on Thursday.

The incident underscores the tense political climate in Honduras, where a hotly contested presidential race on November 30 culminated in a weeks-long vote count and a disputed outcome.

The National Party’s candidate, Nasry Asfura, was ultimately declared the winner just shy of a month later, on December 24.

Members of Honduras’s Congress had convened on Thursday to consider a possible recount of the vote, a proposal advanced by the outgoing left-wing governing party, Libertad y Refundacion (LIBRE).

While the National Electoral Council has affirmed Asfura as the winner, the LIBRE party has yet to accept the result, given the narrow margin of victory and alleged irregularities during the vote count.

Thursday’s incident reportedly left Gladis Aurora Lopez, a conservative deputy for the department of La Paz, injured.

Video of the incident circulating on social media shows Lopez approaching a row of journalists holding TV cameras, when a smoking, grey object strikes her on the back, close to her head.

Lopez reportedly fell to the floor from the force of the blow, but her injuries were not considered life-threatening.

An image posted by Tommy Zambrano, the leader of the National Party’s congressional voting bloc, showed Lopez with her white shirt pulled down past her shoulder to reveal what appeared to be blood splatter and bruising on her ear, neck and back.

Members of the National Party quickly pointed a finger at their rivals in the LIBRE party, blaming them for the violence.

“Today I speak not as a representative, but as a Honduran,” a fellow conservative deputy, Antonio Cesar Rivera, posted on social media. “I condemn with absolute firmness the cowardly attack against Gladis Aurora Lopez and I stand in solidarity with her.”

He accused LIBRE groups of attacking him, too. “Those who promote hatred and intimidation are attacking democracy,” he wrote.

Zambrano, meanwhile, said the LIBRE party leadership was responsible for the attack, even though the assailant remains at large and no suspect has been identified.

He called out Congress’s President Luis Redondo – a LIBRE politician – as well as Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, the first gentleman of Honduras and a former president who was ousted in a 2009 coup.

“The cowardly attack suffered by our colleague Gladis Aurora Lopez illustrates what Luis Redondo, Mel, LIBRE and 21st-century socialism represent: violence and more violence,” Zambrano wrote on social media.

Rhetoric between the country’s leading parties has been particularly heated in recent months, as scandals dogged the lead-up to the November general election.

Stretching back to the March primary, the electoral process was roiled by delays and insufficient electoral materials, leading to accusations that the democratic process had been compromised.

The political infighting only grew as the final ballot drew near, with the LIBRE member of the National Electoral Council accusing his conservative counterpart of election interference and conspiring with the military.

With only days before the election, United States President Donald Trump also weighed into the melee, throwing his support behind Asfura.

Shortly after the polls closed, it became clear that the LIBRE party, led by President Xiomara Castro, had been dealt a blow both in the race for the presidency and for control of Congress.

Its presidential candidate, Rixi Moncada, was a distant third in the final tally, and it lost seats in Congress.

The presidential contest came down to the centre-right Liberal Party and the conservative National Party. Asfura came out on top by less than a percentage point, earning 40.3 percent of the vote while Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla scored 39.6 percent.

Still, the slow nature of the vote count and disruptions to the online posting of results have spurred allegations of fraud and malfeasance in the election.

Asfura is slated to take his oath of office on January 27, marking a return to National Party rule after four years of left-wing leadership.