Trump-Backed Contender Asfura Proclaimed New President of the Central American Nation

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s race for the presidency following a ballot tally that extended for nearly four weeks and was overshadowed by fraud allegations and criticism of meddling from the US president.

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

The electoral council proclaimed a winner before completing the examination of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” initiated last week to re-tally votes marked as “irregular”. The decision was decried by defeated candidates and lamented by the Organization of American States, which sent 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 recognise the tremendous effort undertaken by the members and the whole staff that administered the election. Honduras: 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 tallying procedure, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the data from the original tally sheets were altered”.

The election board is composed of three councillors: 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 victory was declared only by the initial pair of councillors.

The member associated with the president’s party rejected the outcome, alleged that an “electoral coup” was taking place and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, opening the possibility that the result will be contested in the judiciary.

In its announcement, the council declared: “By the majority will of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly at the ballot box, the full council of the CNE proclaims 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 review was the latest in a series of disputes that characterized the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as open interference by the American head of state.

Shortly prior to the election, Trump publicly backed Asfura, stated the US would back the next government only if he won, and criticized the other main contenders, labeling them socialists 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 ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a major drug trafficking route 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’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates the elected president Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his government to promote economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”