TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 31, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Left-wing President Xiomara Castro of Honduras claimed Thursday that the opposition was plotting an "electoral coup" in a presidential vote set for November 30, adding to tensions in a campaign marked by mudslinging.

Attorney General Johel Zelaya released audio recordings Wednesday in which two opposition members, one of whom is on the election commission, are purportedly heard discussing "altering the popular vote" against the ruling Libre party with an unidentified member of the armed forces.

The recordings claim to show the opposition plotting to harm the re-election chances of Castro's leftist Libre party.

"I condemn in the strongest possible terms this criminal conspiracy aimed at provoking an electoral coup," Castro wrote on X, adding she had instructed the armed forces to "immediately investigate the participation of any active military personnel."

She claimed that "the same groups" that orchestrated the 2009 coup that ousted then-president Manuel Zelaya, her husband, were behind the latest alleged conspiracy against the left.

The case has further inflamed an already tense election campaign in the Central American nation.

Polls show the three frontrunners -- Libre's Rixi Moncada and two right-wing candidates, Nasry Asfura of the National Party and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party -- locked in a statistical tie.

Castro, in power since 2022,is barred by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive term.

The two opposition members purportedly heard in the recordings -- Cossette Lopez and Tomas Zambrano -- both claimed the recordings had been made with AI.

Some six million Hondurans are called on to elect a president, a 128-member Congress and 298 municipal councils.

They will also elect Honduran members of the Central American Parliament.

The Organization of American States election observer mission called on all parties in Honduras to "guarantee peaceful and tranquil elections."

Zelaya, president from 2006 to 2009, was overthrown in a military coup supported by business elites and the political right.

Castro is a staunch ally of Venezuela, which is embroiled in a standoff with the United States over drug trafficking.