Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared Incoming President of Honduras
Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s presidential election following a ballot tally that dragged on for almost a month and was marred by claims of irregularities and criticism 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, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes.
The election authority declared a victor prior to finishing the review of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” initiated last week to re-tally votes marked as “inconsistent”. The decision was decried by unsuccessful contenders and deplored by the OAS, which sent an monitoring team to the poll held on 30 November.
Asfura has proclaimed himself as president-elect. “Honduras, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the tremendous effort undertaken by the members and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and posted a series of statements alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the original tally sheets were changed”.
The electoral council is made up of three councillors: one aligned with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the leftist president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate finished third. Asfura’s victory was declared only by the initial pair of councillors.
The representative linked to the president’s party rejected the result, claimed that an “electoral coup” was taking place and lodged a legal challenge with the attorney general, opening the possibility that the result 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 plenary session of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah legitimate president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year term beginning on 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”
The proclamation before the end of the recount was the most recent in a series of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as blatant meddling by the American head of state.
Shortly prior to the election, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, stated the US would back the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, labeling them communists or allies of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the night of the election, the American leader also announced a pardon for the former Honduran president and Asfura supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for reportedly establishing “a major drug trafficking route to the United States”.
The American top diplomat, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “The people of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” stated Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to promote prosperity and safety in our hemisphere.”
