Trump-Backed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of the Central American Nation
Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a ballot tally that dragged on for nearly four weeks and was clouded by fraud allegations and accusations of meddling from the American leader.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 votes.
The election authority declared a victor before completing the review of all vote records under a “extraordinary review” launched last week to re-tally votes marked as “irregular”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the Organization of American States, which deployed an monitoring team to the election held on 30 November.
Asfura has already declared himself 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 members and the whole staff 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 “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the data from the initial count sheets were changed”.
The election board is made up of three members: one aligned with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the leftist president, Xiomara Castro, whose nominee came in third place. Asfura’s victory was announced only by the first two councillors.
The member linked to the president’s party refused to recognise the result, claimed that an “electoral coup” was under way and lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the outcome will be contested in court.
In its statement, the council said: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed freely at the polls, the plenary session of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year 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 series of disputes that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning with what many saw as blatant meddling by the US president.
Shortly prior to the election, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would back the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, calling 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 US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “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 anticipates collaborating with his administration to advance prosperity and safety in our hemisphere.”
