Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of Honduras
Former President Trump-endorsed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and accusations of meddling from the US president.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes.
The election authority proclaimed a winner before completing the examination of all tally sheets under a “extraordinary review” initiated last week to re-tally votes marked as “irregular”. The decision was decried by defeated candidates and lamented by the Organization of American States, which deployed an monitoring team to the election held on 30 November.
Asfura has proclaimed himself as the elected president. “The nation, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I acknowledge the great work carried out by the members and the whole staff that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a series of statements alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the initial count sheets were changed”.
The electoral council is made up of three councillors: one affiliated 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 victory was declared only by the initial pair of councillors.
The representative associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the result, claimed that an “electoral coup” was under way and lodged a complaint with the attorney general, opening the possibility that the result will be challenged in the judiciary.
In its statement, the council said: “By the sovereign choice of the people of Honduras, expressed freely at the ballot box, the full council of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year term starting 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”
The declaration prior to the conclusion of the review was the latest in a series of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as blatant meddling by the US president.
Shortly prior to the vote, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he won, and criticized the other leading candidates, labeling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve of the election, the US president also granted clemency 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 a public platform. “The people of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”