Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of the Central American Nation

Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a ballot tally that extended for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the US president.

The rightwing Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 ballots.

The electoral council proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the examination of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to re-tally votes marked as “inconsistent”. The decision was decried by unsuccessful contenders and deplored by the OAS, which sent an observation mission to the election held on 30 November.

Asfura has proclaimed himself as the elected president. “Honduras, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort carried out 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 wrote.

Nasralla declined to accept defeat and posted a series of statements claiming manipulation in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the original tally sheets were altered”.

The election board 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 announced only by the first two councillors.

The representative associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the result, alleged that an “electoral coup” was under way and filed a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the result will be challenged in the judiciary.

In its announcement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed freely at the polls, the full council of the CNE declares 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 before the end of the recount was the latest in a string of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s election campaign, starting with what many saw as open interference by the US president.

Shortly prior to the election, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would support the next government only if he won, and attacked the other leading candidates, labeling them communists 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 supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for reportedly establishing “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and anticipates working with his government to promote economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”