Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared New Head of State of the Central American Nation
Former President Trump-endorsed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a vote count that extended for almost a month and was clouded by claims of irregularities and accusations of meddling from the American leader.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former 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 prior to finishing the review of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to re-tally votes marked as “irregular”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the OAS, which sent an observation mission to the poll held on 30 November.
Asfura has already declared himself the elected president. “The nation, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the tremendous effort undertaken by the members and the entire team that ran the election. My fellow citizens: I am ready to govern. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a number of messages alleging fraud in the tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the initial count sheets were changed”.
The election board is made up of three councillors: one aligned with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the leftist president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate came in third place. Asfura’s victory was announced only by the first two councillors.
The member associated with the president’s party rejected the outcome, alleged that an “electoral coup” was under way and lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the outcome will be contested in the judiciary.
In its announcement, the council declared: “By the sovereign choice of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the ballot box, the plenary session of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year term beginning on 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”
The proclamation prior to the conclusion of the review was the most recent in a series of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the US president.
Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other leading candidates, labeling them socialists or allies 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 allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.
The American top diplomat, 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 advance economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”
