With a little over two-thirds of the ballots in the Honduras election tallied, the lead has changed hands. The former vice-president, Salvador Nasralla, has a small but potentially significant lead over his rival, the conservative former mayor of Tegucigalpa, Nasry Asfura. Yet Asfura's National Party continues to brief journalists that they have the numbers for an eventual win.
The race remains on a knife-edge. In Washington, President Donald Trump has staked his hopes on nothing less than an outright Asfura victory and has tried to directly influence the race in support of his favoured candidate.
Whether it's been intimating that funds could be withheld from the impoverished Central American nation or making unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud, many in Honduras see the US president's fingerprints all over this election.
To Honduran political analyst, Josue Murillo, it smacks of the kind of treatment Honduras expected from Washington during the Cold War. No government should come here and treat us as a banana republic. That is a lack of respect, he said.
Irrespective of whether the National Party goes on to victory, one of their key figures is already celebrating. On Monday, ex-President Juan Orlando Hernandez walked out of jail in Virginia, having served just one year of a 45-year sentence for drug smuggling and weapons charges. His release came after Trump urged Honduran voters to cast their ballots for Asfura.
Journalists in Honduras who have covered the rise and fall of Hernandez struggle to recognise the description of a roundly detested former president. His wife, Ana Garcia Carias, characterized his release as a dream made reality. She thanked influential conservative figures for their role in securing her husband's pardon.
Meanwhile, the vote count in Honduras continues with anticipation. As the ballots continue to be tallied, it should soon become clear whether Trump will see a new ally elected in the country just as he pardons an old one.
