Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Declared Incoming President of the Central American Nation
Former President Trump-endorsed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a vote count that extended for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the US president.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.
The election authority declared a victor before completing the review of all tally sheets under a “extraordinary review” initiated last week to recount votes marked as “irregular”. The decision was criticised by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the OAS, which sent an observation mission to the election held on 30 November.
Asfura has already declared himself the elected president. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the great work undertaken by the members and the whole staff that ran the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a number of messages claiming manipulation in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, asserting that “the figures from the initial count sheets were changed”.
The election board is made up 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 came in third place. Asfura’s win was announced only by the initial pair of councillors.
The member linked to the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “electoral coup” was under way and lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the outcome will be challenged in the judiciary.
In its announcement, the council said: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the ballot box, the full council of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential term starting 27 January 2026 and ending on 27 January 2030.”
The declaration prior to the conclusion of the review was the latest in a series of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s election campaign, starting with what many saw as open interference by the American head of state.
Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he won, and attacked the other leading candidates, calling them communists or allies of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve of the election, the US president also announced a pardon for the former Honduran president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for reportedly establishing “a major drug trafficking route to the United States”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, offered congratulations to Asfura on a public platform. “The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to promote economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”