Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Declared New Head of State of the Central American Nation

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the winner of Honduras’s presidential election following a vote count that dragged on for nearly four weeks and was marred by fraud allegations and criticism of interference by the American leader.

The conservative Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes.

The election authority declared a victor before completing the examination of all vote records 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 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 official declaration from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort undertaken by the members and the entire team that administered the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.

Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a number of messages alleging fraud in the tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the original tally sheets were altered”.

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 progressive president, Xiomara Castro, whose nominee finished third. Asfura’s victory was declared only by the first two councillors.

The representative associated with the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and lodged a legal challenge with the attorney general, opening the possibility that the result will be contested in the judiciary.

In its announcement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the ballot box, the plenary session of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah legitimate president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year term beginning on 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”

The proclamation before the end of the review was the latest in a string of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning with what many saw as open interference by the American head of state.

Days before the election, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and attacked the other main contenders, calling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the night of the election, the American leader also announced a pardon 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, offered congratulations to 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 president-elect Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his government to advance prosperity and safety in our hemisphere.”