🔗 Share this article Trump-Backed Candidate Asfura Declared New President of Honduras Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s presidential election following a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the American leader. The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes. The electoral council declared a victor before completing the examination of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes marked as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the Organization of American States, which sent an monitoring team to the election held on 30 November. Asfura has already declared himself president-elect. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the great work undertaken by the members and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he wrote. Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a number of messages alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the initial count sheets were altered”. The election board is composed 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 nominee came in third place. Asfura’s win was declared only by the first two councillors. The member linked to the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the result will be challenged in court. In its announcement, the council said: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly 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 ending on 27 January 2030.” The proclamation prior to the conclusion of the review was the latest in a series 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 publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, calling them communists or allies of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro. On the night 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 cocaine superhighway to the United States”. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, offered congratulations to Asfura on social media. “The people of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”
Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s presidential election following a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the American leader. The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes. The electoral council declared a victor before completing the examination of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes marked as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the Organization of American States, which sent an monitoring team to the election held on 30 November. Asfura has already declared himself president-elect. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the great work undertaken by the members and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he wrote. Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a number of messages alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the initial count sheets were altered”. The election board is composed 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 nominee came in third place. Asfura’s win was declared only by the first two councillors. The member linked to the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the result will be challenged in court. In its announcement, the council said: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly 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 ending on 27 January 2030.” The proclamation prior to the conclusion of the review was the latest in a series 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 publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, calling them communists or allies of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro. On the night 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 cocaine superhighway to the United States”. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, offered congratulations to Asfura on social media. “The people of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”