Trump-backed candidate Asfura declared new president of Honduras

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s presidential election after a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and criticism of interference by the US president.The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured 40.27% of the vote, against 39.53% for the centre-right Salvador Nasralla, a margin of just 28,000 votes.The electoral council proclaimed a winner before completing the review of all tally sheets under a “special scrutiny” launched last week earlier to recount votes flagged as “inconsistent”. The decision was criticised by defeated candidates and lamented by the Organization of American States, which sent an observation mission to the election held on 30 November but whose vote count had remained unresolved since then.Asfura has already declared himself president-elect. “Honduras, we now have the official declaration from the CNE [electoral council]. I recognise the great work carried out by the councillors and the entire team that ran the election. Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. God bless Honduras,” he wrote.Nasralla refused to concede and posted a series of statements alleging fraud in the counting process, including “forgery of public documents”, claiming that “the data from the original tally sheets were altered”.Nasralla urged his supporters to remain calm and refrain from any acts of disruption or violence, adding this was “the saddest Christmas for the Honduran people.”The head of the Honduran Congress also rejected the results. “This is completely outside the law. It has no value,” Congress president Luis Redondo, of the ruling Libre party, wrote on X.The electoral council is made up 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 first two councillors.The representative linked to the president’s party refused to recognise the result, alleged that an “electoral coup” was under way and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office, raising the prospect that the outcome will be challenged in court.In its statement, the council said: “By the majority will of the Honduran people, 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 four-year term beginning on 27 January 2026 and ending on 27 January 2030.”The declaration before the end of the recount was the latest in a string of controversies that marked the Central American country’s presidential race, starting with what many saw as open interference by the US president.Days before the vote, Trump publicly backed Asfura, said the US would support the next government only if he won, and attacked the other leading candidates, calling them communists or allies of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.On the eve of the election, the US president also announced a pardon for the former Honduran president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, congratulated Asfura on social media. “The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” said Rubio. “The United States congratulates president-elect Asfura and looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”