Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of the Central American Nation
Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the victor of Honduras’s presidential election following a ballot tally that extended for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed 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, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 votes.
The election authority proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the examination of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” initiated last week to recount votes flagged as “irregular”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the Organization of American States, which deployed an observation mission to the poll 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 recognise the tremendous effort undertaken by the councillors and the whole staff that ran the election. My fellow citizens: I am prepared to lead. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and posted a series of statements alleging fraud in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the figures from the original tally sheets were altered”.
The election board is made up of three members: one affiliated with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the progressive president, Xiomara Castro, whose nominee came in third place. Asfura’s win was announced only by the first two councillors.
The representative associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and filed a complaint with the attorney general, raising the prospect that the result will be contested in the judiciary.
In its announcement, the council said: “By the sovereign choice of the people of Honduras, expressed freely at the polls, the plenary session of the CNE declares 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 declaration prior to the conclusion of the review was the most recent in a series of disputes that marked the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as blatant meddling 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 main contenders, calling them socialists or associates 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 ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for allegedly 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 made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to promote economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”
