Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Declared Incoming Head of State of Honduras

Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the victor of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a vote count that extended for almost a month and was marred by claims of irregularities and accusations of interference by the US president.

The rightwing Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.

The election authority proclaimed a winner before completing the examination of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by defeated candidates and deplored by the OAS, which deployed an monitoring team to the poll held on 30 November.

Asfura has already declared himself the elected president. “The nation, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I acknowledge 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 series of statements claiming manipulation in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the figures from the initial count sheets were changed”.

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

The member linked to the president’s party refused to recognise the result, claimed that an “stolen election” was under way and lodged a complaint with the attorney general, opening the possibility that the result will be contested in the judiciary.

In its announcement, the council said: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, 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 presidential term beginning on 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”

The declaration prior to the conclusion of the recount was the most recent in a series of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, starting 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 attacked the other leading candidates, calling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the night of the election, the US president also granted clemency for the ex-leader of Honduras and Asfura supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for allegedly 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 spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to the elected president Asfura and looks forward to collaborating with his administration to promote economic growth and security in our region.”