Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared New President of Honduras
Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a ballot tally that dragged on for almost a month and was clouded by fraud allegations and criticism of interference by the US president.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former 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 votes.
The election authority proclaimed a winner before completing the review of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to re-tally votes marked as “irregular”. The move was criticised by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the Organization of American States, which deployed an monitoring team to the poll held on 30 November.
Asfura has proclaimed himself as president-elect. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the tremendous effort carried out by the councillors and the whole staff that administered the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a series of statements claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, claiming that “the figures from the original tally sheets were changed”.
The election board 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 nominee finished third. Asfura’s victory was announced only by the first two councillors.
The member linked to the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, alleged that an “electoral coup” was taking place and lodged a legal challenge with the attorney general, raising the prospect that the result will be contested in the judiciary.
In its statement, the council said: “By the sovereign choice of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly at the polls, 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 proclamation before the end of the recount was the latest in a series of controversies that marked the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the US president.
Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would back the next government only if he was victorious, and attacked the other leading candidates, labeling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
On the night of the election, the US president also announced a pardon for the ex-leader of Honduras and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for reportedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.
The American top diplomat, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on social media. “The citizens of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”
