Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared New Head of State of the Central American Nation
Donald Trump-backed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s presidential election after a ballot tally that extended for almost a month and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and criticism of meddling from the US president.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 ballots.
The election authority proclaimed a winner before completing the examination of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to re-tally votes marked as “irregular”. The decision was decried by defeated candidates and deplored by the Organization of American States, which deployed an observation mission to the election held on 30 November.
Asfura has already declared himself president-elect. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort undertaken by the members and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a series of statements alleging fraud in the tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, asserting that “the data from the original tally sheets were changed”.
The electoral council is composed of three councillors: one aligned with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the progressive president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate finished third. Asfura’s win was announced only by the first two councillors.
The representative associated with the president’s party rejected the outcome, alleged that an “stolen election” was taking place and lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the result will be challenged in court.
In its statement, the council declared: “By the sovereign choice 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 declaration prior to the conclusion of the review was the latest in a string of controversies that marked the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the American head of state.
Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed 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 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 sentenced 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 citizens of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to promote economic growth and safety in our region.”
