Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Declared Incoming President of the Central American Nation

Donald Trump-backed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the victor of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a ballot tally that extended for almost a month and was clouded by claims of irregularities and accusations of meddling from the US president.

The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 ballots.

The electoral council declared a victor before completing the review of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes flagged as “irregular”. The move was criticised by unsuccessful contenders and deplored 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 official declaration from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the great work undertaken by the councillors and the whole staff that ran the election. My fellow citizens: I am ready to govern. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.

Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a number of messages alleging fraud in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the original tally 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 leftist president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate finished third. Asfura’s victory was declared only by the initial pair of councillors.

The member associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, claimed that an “electoral coup” was under way and lodged a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the result will be challenged in the judiciary.

In its statement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed freely at the polls, 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 ending on 27 January 2030.”

The proclamation before the end 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 vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, calling them socialists or allies of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the eve of the election, the American leader 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, offered congratulations to Asfura on a public platform. “The people of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”