Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of the Central American Nation
Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s presidential election following a ballot tally that extended for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and criticism of meddling from the US president.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes.
The election authority proclaimed a winner before completing the review of all tally sheets under a “extraordinary review” initiated last week to recount votes marked as “irregular”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and deplored by the Organization of American States, which sent an monitoring team to the poll held on 30 November.
Asfura has proclaimed himself as the elected president. “The nation, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the tremendous effort carried out by the members and the whole staff that administered the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and posted a series of statements alleging fraud in the tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, asserting that “the data from the original tally sheets were changed”.
The electoral council is composed of three members: one affiliated with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the progressive president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate finished third. Asfura’s win was declared only by the first two councillors.
The member associated with the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the outcome will be challenged in court.
In its announcement, the council said: “By the sovereign choice of the Honduran people, expressed sovereignly at the ballot box, the full council of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah legitimate president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential term starting 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”
The declaration prior to the conclusion of the recount was the most recent in a string of controversies that marked the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the American head of state.
Days before the election, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, stated the US would support the next government only if he won, and attacked the other leading candidates, calling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the night of the election, the US president also granted clemency for the former Honduran president and Asfura supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for reportedly creating “a major drug trafficking route to the United States”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on social media. “The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates president-elect Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”