( CNN ) -- The official tally of last month 's presidential election is almost complete , and one pivotal piece of electoral data -- voter turnout -- will be lower than officials have previously claimed . The turnout matters as it may reflect how much trust the Hondurans placed in an election during a political crisis pitting the country 's de facto government against the nation 's ousted president . According to Honduras ' Supreme Electoral Tribunal and interviews with the electoral officials , with 99.8 percent of the votes counted , 2,298,080 people participated in the November 29 election . This represents a 50 percent voter turnout , a figure much lower than the 61 percent officially estimated by the electoral tribunal on election day , and lower than revised turnout figures that the Electoral Tribunal gave to CNN as recently as December 5 . The crisis , which escalated after President Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup last June , has split the international community now that a new president has been elected . Some countries , such as the United States , Colombia and Costa Rica , have said they will recognize President-elect Lobo Sosa . Others , such as Argentina , Brazil and Spain , have said they will not . Other nations have indicated that the turnout figure will be an important indicator in determining whether they will recognize the legitimacy of the election . To date , the tribunal , known as TSE by its Spanish acronym , has only released one official press release regarding the vote count . That statement , made on election day , cites a 61 percent voter turnout rate and says 2.8 million people cast votes . When CNN made its own analysis earlier this month , TSE spokesman Roberto Reyes Pineda said that about 2.6 million votes were cast . This downward revision turned out to be overly optimistic as well . `` There was clearly an effort to get out early vote results as robustly as possibly and convince the international community that the elections were legitimate , '' Christopher Sabatini , senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas , told CNN . But Reyes Pineda said that the electoral tribunal has not purposefully tried to put out inflated numbers . `` That was a projection that reflected the data at the moment , '' he said , referring to the data in the first press release and the data given to CNN . A consultant to the TSE who has participated on the official vote count disagreed . `` They gave out those numbers without any substantive evidence , '' said the consultant , who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was fearful of jeopardizing his position . `` There was no substantive methodology behind their projections . '' Estimates from TSE were higher than the patterns the statisticians were seeing because there was political pressure for the election to be considered legitimate and successful , the consultant said . Reyes Pineda said that the TSE 's estimates of 2.8 million and 2.6 million votes cast were `` based on what we expected . The number could be a little erroneous , but it was based on the data at the time . '' The electoral body has n't put out any further updates to its original 61 percent voter turnout prediction to avoid confusion , he said . Another official press release is not expected until after all the votes are tabulated and all disputes in smaller races settled , Reyes Pineda said . A 50 percent turnout would mean that fewer voters participated than in the last presidential race , in 2005 , where turnout was 55 percent , according to TSE data . But it also follows a trend of declining turnout since 1997 . `` Even the adjusted numbers are not significantly different from the patterns of past elections , '' Sabatini said . A turnout of under 40 percent may have jeopardized the international acceptance of the election , but the actual turnout rate is still significant enough to be considered legitimate , he said . Other indicators that could shed light on whether Zelaya 's calls for a boycott were heeded , such as the number of spoiled or blank ballots , are not significantly different than in the last election , TSE data shows .
Voter turnout numbers in Honduras lower than originally reported . Numbers are important because they may show faith of Hondurans during crisis . The crisis escalated after President Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup . He had been elected president by the Honduran people, but he refused to step down and instead fled into exile.