Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of Honduras
Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the victor of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a ballot tally that extended for nearly four weeks and was clouded by fraud allegations and criticism of meddling from the American leader.
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 ballots.
The election authority proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the examination 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 OAS, which sent an monitoring team to the election held on 30 November.
Asfura has already declared himself the elected president. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [electoral council]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort carried out by the members and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and posted a number of messages alleging fraud in the counting process, including “tampering with official records”, claiming that “the data from the original tally sheets were altered”.
The electoral council 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 candidate came in third place. Asfura’s victory was declared only by the first two councillors.
The representative associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, claimed that an “stolen election” was under way and lodged a legal challenge with the attorney general, raising the prospect that the outcome will be challenged in the judiciary.
In its statement, the council declared: “By the sovereign choice of the Honduran people, expressed sovereignly at the polls, the plenary session of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential 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 string of disputes 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 openly endorsed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he won, and criticized the other main contenders, labeling them socialists or allies of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve of the election, the US president 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 major drug trafficking route to the United States”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, offered congratulations to Asfura on a public platform. “The citizens of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and looks forward to working with his administration to promote prosperity and safety in our hemisphere.”
