Taiwan to respect Honduras election outcome, but says vote count ongoing

TAIPEI • Taiwan will respect the result of the Honduras election, but will comment only when the vote count is done, the government said yesterday, holding off on congratulating Ms Xiomara Castro, who looked set to win and may ditch Taipei for Beijing.

Honduras is among 15 countries with formal diplomatic ties to Taiwan and she has floated the idea of switching to China.

With just over half the ballots counted, Ms Castro, the wife of former president Manuel Zelaya, held a nearly 20-point lead over conservative Nasry Asfura, the mayor of capital Tegucigalpa and candidate of the ruling National Party, who won 34 per cent, according to a preliminary tally.

However, the tally had not been updated for more than 10 hours by Monday afternoon.

Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesman Joanne Ou said the government supported free and fair elections and would respect the outcome. But she said vote-counting had yet to be completed and Taiwan would issue a statement only when there was an official result.

"We are already continuing to strengthen communication with all levels of society, important friends, to explain our positive intentions to deepen our friendly ties and good bilateral cooperative relations," she told reporters in Taipei. "We will cooperate with the new Honduras government, regardless of the political party or who is elected."

Honduras and the Republic of China government have a relationship dating back to 1941, before the latter fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war.

China's Foreign Ministry last week accused the United States of "arm-twisting" after an American delegation made clear that Washington wanted Honduras to maintain its longstanding diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Taiwan has warned Honduras not to be taken in by China's "flashy and false" promises.

China's efforts to woo away Taiwan's remaining allies have alarmed and angered Washington, which is concerned about Beijing's growing international influence, especially in Central America.

Separately, a senior lawmaker of Taiwan's ruling party, Mr Tsai Shih-ying, thanked major submarine-producing nations yesterday for helping with the island's submarine programme, after Reuters reported on the multinational effort that includes Britain, the United States and Canada.

Taiwan has made the indigenous programme a key platform of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces as Beijing steps up military threats against the democratically-ruled island.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary.

REUTERS