Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed New Head of State of the Central American Nation
Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the victor of Honduras’s presidential election following a vote count that extended for nearly four weeks and was clouded by claims of irregularities and accusations of meddling from the US president.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and former mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 ballots.
The electoral council declared a victor prior to finishing the review of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to re-tally votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The decision was criticised by unsuccessful contenders and deplored by the OAS, which sent an observation mission 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 recognise the great work carried out by the members and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.
Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a number of messages claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, asserting that “the figures from the original tally sheets were changed”.
The electoral council is composed 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 declared only by the first two councillors.
The member linked to the president’s party rejected the result, claimed that an “stolen election” was taking place and filed a legal challenge with the attorney general, raising the prospect that the result will be contested in court.
In its announcement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the ballot box, 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 controversies that marked the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as blatant meddling by the American head of state.
Shortly prior to the election, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other leading candidates, calling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve 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 sentenced 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway 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’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his government to promote prosperity and security in our region.”
