Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Declared New President of Honduras

Donald Trump-backed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was proclaimed the victor of Honduras’s presidential election after a vote count that dragged on for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and criticism of interference by the US president.

The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and ex-mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.

The election authority proclaimed a winner before completing the examination of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” initiated last week to recount votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The decision was criticised by defeated candidates and lamented by the Organization of American States, which sent an observation mission to the poll held on 30 November.

Asfura has already declared himself the elected president. “Honduras, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort undertaken by the councillors and the whole staff that ran the election. My fellow citizens: I am prepared to lead. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he stated.

Nasralla refused to concede and published a number of messages alleging fraud in the counting process, including “tampering with official records”, claiming that “the data from the original tally sheets were changed”.

The election board is made up 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 came in third place. Asfura’s win was announced only by the first two councillors.

The member associated with the president’s party rejected the outcome, alleged that an “electoral coup” was under way and filed a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the result will be contested in the judiciary.

In its statement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the ballot box, the full council of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential term beginning on 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”

The proclamation before the end of the recount was the most recent in a series of disputes that marked the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as blatant meddling by the American head of state.

Shortly prior to the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would support the next government only if he won, and criticized the other leading candidates, labeling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the eve of the election, the American leader also granted clemency for the former Honduran president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a major drug trafficking route to the United States”.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on social media. “The citizens of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” stated Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”