Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of the Central American Nation
Donald Trump-backed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a ballot tally that extended for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed by claims of irregularities and accusations of meddling from the US president.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and ex-mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes.
The electoral council declared a victor before completing the review of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to re-tally votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The decision was decried by defeated candidates and deplored by the Organization of American States, which deployed an monitoring team to the poll held on 30 November.
Asfura has proclaimed himself as the elected president. “Honduras, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [electoral council]. I acknowledge 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 let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a series of statements claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the original tally sheets were changed”.
The electoral council is made up of three councillors: one affiliated with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the leftist president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate came in third place. Asfura’s victory was announced only by the first two councillors.
The member associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the result, claimed that an “electoral coup” was under way and filed a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the outcome will be contested in the judiciary.
In its statement, the council said: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly at the ballot box, the full council of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential term beginning on 27 January 2026 and ending on 27 January 2030.”
The declaration before the end of the review 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 US president.
Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would back the next government only if he won, and attacked the other main contenders, labeling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve of the election, the American leader also announced a pardon for the former Honduran president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for allegedly establishing “a major drug trafficking route to the United States”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, offered congratulations to Asfura on social media. “The people 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 anticipates collaborating with his administration to promote prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”
