Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared New President of Honduras

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the victor of Honduras’s presidential election following a vote count that dragged on for nearly four weeks and was marred by claims of irregularities and accusations of meddling from the American leader.

The conservative 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 margin of just 28,000 votes.

The election authority declared a victor before completing the examination of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to re-tally votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by defeated candidates and lamented by the OAS, which deployed an monitoring team to the poll held on 30 November.

Asfura has proclaimed himself as the elected president. “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 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 posted a number of messages claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the initial count sheets were changed”.

The electoral council is composed 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 victory was announced only by the initial pair of councillors.

The member associated with the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “electoral coup” was under way and filed a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the result will be challenged in the judiciary.

In its announcement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly at the polls, the plenary session of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah legitimate president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential term beginning on 27 January 2026 and ending on 27 January 2030.”

The proclamation prior to the conclusion of the recount was the most recent in a series of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s election campaign, starting with what many saw as blatant meddling by the US president.

Days before the election, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and attacked the other main contenders, labeling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the night 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 given 45 years in prison for reportedly 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 people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” stated Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his administration to advance economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”