Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Proclaimed New Head of State of Honduras

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the victor of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a vote count that extended for almost a month and was marred by claims of irregularities and criticism of interference by the US president.

The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and ex-mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.

The election authority proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the review of all vote records under a “extraordinary review” initiated last week to recount votes marked as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by defeated candidates 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 formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort carried out by the members and the whole staff that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.

Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a series of statements alleging fraud in the tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the data from the initial count sheets were altered”.

The election board 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 finished third. Asfura’s victory was declared only by the initial pair of councillors.

The representative associated with the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and filed a legal challenge with the attorney general, raising the prospect that the outcome will be contested in court.

In its announcement, the council declared: “By the sovereign choice of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the polls, the full council 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 declaration prior to the conclusion of the recount was the most recent in a string 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.

Days before the vote, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, stated the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, labeling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the eve of the election, the US president also announced a pardon for the former Honduran president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for reportedly establishing “a major drug trafficking route 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,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to promote economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”