Trump-Backed Contender Asfura Declared Incoming President of Honduras

Donald Trump-backed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s presidential election after a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was overshadowed by claims of irregularities and accusations of meddling from the US president.

The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes.

The election authority proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the review of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The decision was decried by defeated candidates and deplored by the OAS, which sent an monitoring team to the election held on 30 November.

Asfura has already declared himself president-elect. “Honduras, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort undertaken by the members 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 declined to accept defeat and posted a series of statements alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the data from the original tally sheets were changed”.

The electoral council 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 candidate came in third place. Asfura’s win was announced only by the first two councillors.

The representative linked to the president’s party rejected the result, claimed that an “electoral coup” was taking place and lodged a complaint with the attorney general, opening the possibility that the result will be challenged in the judiciary.

In its statement, the council declared: “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 constitutional 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 string of disputes that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the US president.

Shortly prior to the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and attacked the other leading candidates, calling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the night of the election, the American leader also granted clemency for the ex-leader of Honduras and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for allegedly establishing “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.

The American top diplomat, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “The citizens of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his government to advance economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”