Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared New Head of State of Honduras
Former President Trump-endorsed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the victor of Honduras’s presidential election following a ballot tally that dragged on for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and accusations of meddling from the US president.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 votes.
The electoral council declared a victor before completing the examination of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes marked as “inconsistent”. The move was criticised by defeated candidates and lamented by the OAS, which sent an monitoring team 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 [electoral council]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort carried out by the councillors and the whole staff that ran the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla refused to concede and posted a series of statements alleging fraud in the counting process, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the figures from the initial count sheets were altered”.
The election board is made up of three members: 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 win was declared only by the initial pair of councillors.
The representative linked to the president’s party rejected the outcome, claimed that an “electoral coup” was under way and filed a complaint with the attorney general, raising the prospect that the result will be challenged in court.
In its announcement, the council said: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed sovereignly at the ballot box, the full council of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah legitimate president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year term starting 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”
The proclamation before the end of the review was the most recent in a series of disputes 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 publicly backed Asfura, said the US would back 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 American leader also granted clemency for the former Honduran president and Asfura supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for reportedly creating “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 people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and anticipates working with his government to promote prosperity and safety in our hemisphere.”
