Former US President-Endorsed Contender Asfura Proclaimed New President of the Central American Nation

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the victor of Honduras’s race for the presidency after a vote count that extended for almost a month and was clouded by claims of irregularities and accusations of meddling from the US president.

The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, obtained 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the moderate right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 ballots.

The election authority declared a victor before completing the review of all tally sheets under a “extraordinary review” launched last week to re-tally votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The decision was criticised by defeated candidates and lamented by the OAS, which deployed an monitoring team to the election held on 30 November.

Asfura has already declared himself the elected president. “Honduras, we now have the formal proclamation from the CNE [supreme electoral tribunal]. I recognise the great work carried out by the councillors and the whole staff that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he stated.

Nasralla declined to accept defeat and published a number of messages claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, asserting that “the data from the original tally sheets were changed”.

The electoral council is composed of three members: one aligned with Asfura’s party, one with Nasralla’s, and one with the party of the leftist president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate finished third. Asfura’s win was announced only by the initial pair of councillors.

The representative associated with the president’s party refused to recognise the outcome, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and lodged a legal challenge with the attorney general, raising the prospect that the result will be contested in the judiciary.

In its statement, the council said: “By the sovereign choice of the Honduran people, expressed freely at the polls, the full council of the CNE declares Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah legitimate president of the Republic of Honduras for the four-year term beginning on 27 January 2026 and ending on 27 January 2030.”

The proclamation prior to the conclusion of the recount was the most recent in a string of controversies that marked the Central American country’s presidential race, beginning 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 was victorious, and attacked the other leading candidates, labeling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

On the night 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 allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.

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