Trump-Backed Contender Asfura Declared New Head of State of Honduras
Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a ballot tally that extended for nearly four weeks and was marred by claims of irregularities and accusations of interference by the US president.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and ex-mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.
The electoral council proclaimed a winner before completing the review of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” launched last week to recount votes marked as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by unsuccessful contenders and lamented by the OAS, which deployed an observation mission to the poll held on 30 November.
Asfura has proclaimed himself as the elected president. “Honduras, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the tremendous effort carried out by the councillors and the entire team that ran 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 series of statements claiming manipulation in the counting process, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the original tally sheets were altered”.
The electoral council 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 finished third. Asfura’s win was announced only by the first two councillors.
The representative associated with the president’s party rejected the result, alleged that an “stolen election” was taking place and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the outcome will be contested in court.
In its statement, the council declared: “By the sovereign choice of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly at the ballot box, 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 review was the most recent in a string of controversies that marked the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as blatant meddling by the American head of state.
Days before the election, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would back the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other leading candidates, calling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the night 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 reportedly creating “a major drug trafficking route 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’ next president,” 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 hemisphere.”
