Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared Incoming President of the Central American Nation
Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a ballot tally that extended for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and criticism of interference by the American leader.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.
The election authority declared a victor before completing the examination of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” initiated last week to re-tally votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the OAS, which deployed an monitoring team to the poll held on 30 November.
Asfura has already declared himself president-elect. “Honduras, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the tremendous effort undertaken by the councillors and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a number of messages claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the initial count sheets were altered”.
The electoral council is made up of three members: one aligned with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the progressive president, Xiomara Castro, whose nominee came in third place. Asfura’s win was declared only by the initial pair of councillors.
The member associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, claimed that an “stolen election” was taking place and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the outcome will be contested in the judiciary.
In its announcement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed sovereignly 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 proclamation before the end of the recount was the most recent in a string of disputes that characterized the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the US president.
Shortly prior to the election, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other leading candidates, labeling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the night of the election, the American leader also granted clemency for the former Honduran president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for allegedly establishing “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”
