Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed New Head of State of the Central American Nation

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the victor of Honduras’s presidential election following a vote count that extended for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and accusations of interference by the US president.

The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, compared to 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a difference of just 28,000 votes.

The electoral council proclaimed a winner before completing the examination of all vote records under a “extraordinary review” launched last week to re-tally votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The move was decried by defeated candidates and deplored 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 official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I acknowledge the great work carried out by the councillors and the whole staff that ran the election. Honduras: I am prepared to lead. I will not fail you. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.

Nasralla refused to concede and published a number of messages claiming manipulation in the tallying procedure, including “tampering with official records”, claiming that “the figures from the original tally sheets were changed”.

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 leftist president, Xiomara Castro, whose candidate came in third place. Asfura’s win was announced only by the initial pair of councillors.

The member associated with the president’s party rejected the outcome, alleged that an “stolen election” was under way and filed a legal challenge with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the outcome will be challenged in the judiciary.

In its statement, the council said: “By the sovereign choice of the people of Honduras, expressed sovereignly at the polls, the full council of the CNE proclaims Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras for the presidential term beginning on 27 January 2026 and ending on 27 January 2030.”

The proclamation before the end of the review was the latest in a string of controversies that characterized the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as blatant meddling by the US president.

Days before the vote, Trump openly endorsed Asfura, stated the US would support the next government only if he was victorious, and criticized the other main contenders, calling them socialists or associates of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

On the night of the election, the US president also granted clemency for the ex-leader of Honduras and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been given 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.

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