Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared New President of Honduras
Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a ballot tally that extended for nearly four weeks and was marred by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the American leader.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 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 proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the examination of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” initiated last week to recount votes marked as “inconsistent”. 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 president-elect. “The nation, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I recognise the tremendous effort undertaken by the councillors and the whole staff that administered the election. My fellow citizens: I am ready to govern. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and posted a number of messages alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, asserting that “the figures from the original tally sheets were altered”.
The election board 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 nominee finished third. Asfura’s victory was announced only by the first two councillors.
The member associated with the president’s party rejected the result, claimed that an “stolen election” was under way and filed a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the outcome will be challenged in court.
In its statement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed freely 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 beginning on 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 disputes that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning with what many saw as blatant meddling by the American head of state.
Shortly prior to the election, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, said the US would back the next government only if he won, and criticized the other leading candidates, calling them socialists or allies of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve of the election, the US president also granted clemency for the former Honduran president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.
The American top diplomat, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “The citizens of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and security in our region.”
