Former US President-Endorsed Candidate Asfura Proclaimed Incoming President of the Central American Nation

Former President Trump-endorsed hopeful Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s presidential election after a ballot tally that dragged on for nearly four weeks and was clouded by claims of irregularities and accusations of interference by the American leader.

The conservative Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and ex-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 declared a victor before completing the review of all vote records under a “extraordinary review” launched last week to re-tally votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The decision was decried by defeated candidates and deplored by the Organization of American States, which sent an observation mission to the election held on 30 November.

Asfura has already declared himself the elected president. “The nation, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I recognise the tremendous effort undertaken by the councillors and the whole staff that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.

Nasralla declined to accept defeat and posted a number of messages alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, asserting that “the figures from the original tally sheets were changed”.

The electoral council is composed of three members: one affiliated 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 announced only by the initial pair of councillors.

The member associated with the president’s party rejected the result, claimed that an “electoral coup” 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 announcement, the council said: “By the majority will 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 starting 27 January 2026 and concluding on 27 January 2030.”

The proclamation prior to the conclusion of the recount was the most recent in a string of disputes that marked the Central American country’s election campaign, beginning with what many saw as blatant meddling by the US president.

Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would back the next government only if he won, and attacked the other leading candidates, calling them communists or associates of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

On the night of the election, the American leader also announced a pardon for the former Honduran president and Asfura supporter Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced 45 years in prison for reportedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on a public platform. “The citizens of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates president-elect Asfura and anticipates collaborating with his administration to advance economic growth and security in our hemisphere.”