Trump-Backed Contender Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of Honduras

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura was announced as the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a vote count that extended for nearly four weeks and was marred by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the American leader.

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

The electoral council declared a victor prior to finishing the review of all vote records under a “extraordinary review” launched last week to recount votes marked as “irregular”. The move was decried 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. “The nation, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the great work carried out by the members and the whole staff that administered the election. My fellow citizens: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.

Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a number of messages claiming manipulation in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, asserting that “the data from the initial count sheets were altered”.

The election board 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 candidate finished third. Asfura’s win was declared only by the first two councillors.

The representative associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, alleged that an “electoral coup” was under way and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the outcome will be contested in the judiciary.

In its statement, the council declared: “By the sovereign choice of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly 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 declaration prior to the conclusion of the review was the most recent in a series of disputes that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as blatant meddling by the US president.

Shortly prior to the election, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and attacked the other leading candidates, calling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

On the eve of the election, the US president also granted clemency for the former Honduran president and Asfura supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for reportedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.

The American top diplomat, Marco Rubio, offered congratulations to Asfura on social media. “The citizens of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ incoming leader,” said Rubio. “The United States extends its congratulations to president-elect Asfura and looks forward to working with his administration to promote economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”