Protesters injured in Honduras clashes as electoral crisis rumbles on

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Over two dozen people were injured in clashes on Friday between Honduran security forces and protesters demanding a vote recount for last month's contentious and still unresolved presidential election, according to the Red Cross.

Supporters of the center-left Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, led by TV star Salvador Nasralla, set fire to tires across the country, blocking major thoroughfares in the capital, Tegucigalpa, and the second city of San Pedro Sula.

Police and soldiers responded with tear gas to rock-throwing protesters who set fire to a vehicle for carrying soldiers in Tegucigalpa.

Near San Pedro Sula, protesters blocked a road leading to the key Puerto Cortes port, before being moved on by security forces.

The Honduran branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross said that 27 people had been injured in the clashes. At least five of those injured in the northern city of Villanueva, near San Pedro Sula, had been shot, it said.

Honduras has been roiled by political instability in the wake of the Nov. 26 vote, which remains unresolved. Nasralla trails conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez by 1.6 percentage points according to the official count, which has been questioned by the two main opposition parties and a wide swathe of the diplomatic corps.

Honduras' electoral tribunal said on Sunday that a partial recount of votes showed broadly the same result as previously, maintaining Hernandez's lead. It has until Dec. 26 to declare a winner.

Last week, Honduras' two main opposition parties presented formal requests to annul the results of the election.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

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