Trump-Backed Contender Asfura Declared Incoming President of the Central American Nation
Former President Trump-endorsed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s presidential election following a ballot tally that dragged on for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the US president.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.
The election authority proclaimed a winner before completing the examination of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes marked as “irregular”. The decision was decried by unsuccessful contenders and deplored by the Organization of American States, which sent an observation mission to the election held on 30 November.
Asfura has proclaimed himself as the elected president. “The nation, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I recognise the tremendous effort carried out by the councillors and the entire team that administered the election. My fellow citizens: I am prepared to lead. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a series of statements alleging fraud in the counting process, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the initial count sheets were altered”.
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 first two councillors.
The member linked to the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, alleged that an “electoral coup” was taking place and lodged a complaint with the attorney general, opening the possibility that the result will be contested in the judiciary.
In its announcement, the council said: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed sovereignly at the polls, the plenary session of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year term beginning on 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”
The declaration before the end of the review was the most recent in a series of controversies that marked the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the American head of state.
Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would back the next government only if he won, and criticized the other leading candidates, labeling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve 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 social media. “The citizens of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to promote prosperity and safety in our hemisphere.”
