Trump-Backed Contender Asfura Proclaimed New Head of State of Honduras
Former President Trump-endorsed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the victor of Honduras’s presidential election after a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and accusations of meddling from the US president.
The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 votes.
The election authority declared a victor prior to finishing the examination of all tally sheets under a “extraordinary review” initiated last week to recount votes marked as “irregular”. The decision was decried 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 president-elect. “Honduras, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I recognise the tremendous effort carried out 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 wrote.
Nasralla refused to concede and posted a number of messages claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the original tally sheets were changed”.
The election board 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 nominee came in third place. Asfura’s win was declared only by the first two councillors.
The member associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, claimed that an “electoral coup” was taking place and filed a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, 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 plenary session of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah legitimate 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 most recent in a series of controversies that marked the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the US president.
Days before the vote, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, said the US would back the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, calling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve 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 allegedly establishing “a cocaine superhighway 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,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates president-elect Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his government to advance prosperity and security in our region.”
