Trump-Backed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed New Head of State of the Central American Nation
Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s presidential election after a vote count that extended for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the US president.
The conservative Asfura, 67, a building tycoon and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 ballots.
The electoral council proclaimed a winner prior to finishing the review of all vote records under a “special scrutiny” initiated last week to recount votes marked as “inconsistent”. The move was criticised by defeated candidates and lamented by the Organization of American States, which deployed an monitoring team 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 [electoral council]. I acknowledge the tremendous effort undertaken by the councillors and the entire team that administered the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.
Nasralla refused to concede and published a series of statements claiming manipulation in the counting process, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the initial count sheets were changed”.
The election board is composed 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 candidate finished third. Asfura’s victory was announced only by the first two councillors.
The representative linked to the president’s party rejected the outcome, claimed that an “stolen election” was under way and lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the outcome will be contested in the judiciary.
In its statement, the council declared: “By the sovereign choice 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 four-year term starting 27 January 2026 and ending on 27 January 2030.”
The proclamation before the end of the review was the latest in a string of disputes that characterized the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as blatant meddling by the US president.
Days before the election, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, labeling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
On the eve 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 creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” stated Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and looks forward to working with his government to advance economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”
