Trump-Backed Contender Asfura Declared New Head of State of the Central American Nation
Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the victor of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and criticism of meddling from the US president.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 ballots.
The electoral council proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the examination of all tally sheets under a “extraordinary review” launched last week to re-tally votes marked as “irregular”. 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 the elected president. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [electoral council]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort carried out by the councillors and the whole staff that administered the election. My fellow citizens: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a series of statements claiming manipulation 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 councillors: 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 victory was announced only by the initial pair of councillors.
The member linked to the president’s party rejected the result, claimed that an “stolen election” was under way and lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the result will be challenged in the judiciary.
In its announcement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the polls, the plenary session of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential term starting 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”
The declaration before the end of the recount was the latest in a string of disputes that characterized the Central American country’s election campaign, starting with what many saw as open interference 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 criticized the other leading candidates, labeling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
On the night of the election, the US president also granted clemency for the former Honduran president and Asfura supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for reportedly establishing “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on social media. “The citizens of Honduras have made their choice: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” stated Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to advance economic growth and safety in our hemisphere.”
