Trump-Backed Candidate Nasry Asfura Declared Winner Of Honduras’ Presidential Vote

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura wins Honduras’ Electoral authorities said after the presidential election on Wednesday afternoon that weeks of counting that had weakened the credibility of the Central American country’s fragile electoral system were over.

Elections continue in Latin America shake rightIt comes just a week after Chile elected far-right politician José Antonio Kast as its next president.

Asfura of the conservative National Party received 40.27% of the vote on November 30, besting four-time candidate Salvador Nasralla of the conservative Liberal Party, who received 39.53% of the vote.

The former mayor of Honduras’ capital Tegucigalpa won his second presidential bid after he and Nasralla went neck and neck during weeks of vote counting that fueled international concern.

A number of election officials and candidates were already fighting and objecting to the election results Tuesday night. Meanwhile, followers at Asfura’s campaign headquarters cheered.

“Honduras: I am ready to govern,” Asfura wrote in a post on X shortly after the results were announced. “I won’t let you down.”

The results are a scolding of the current left leaderand the ruling democratic socialist Freedom and Reestablishment Party, known as LIBRE, whose candidate came in a distant third place with 19.19% of the vote.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura in a post on X on Wednesday: “The people of Honduras have spoken… (The Trump administration) looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”

Right-wing leaders in the European Union and Latin America, including Trump’s ally Argentine President Javier Milei, also congratulated the politician.

Asfura ran as a pragmatic politician, highlighting popular infrastructure projects in the capital. Trump endorsed the 67-year-old conservative just days before the vote, saying he was the only Honduran candidate the US administration would work with.

Nasralla continued to claim that the elections were fraudulent on Wednesday, saying that election officials who announced the results “betrayed the Honduran people.”

He also addressed Trump in a post on

He and other opponents of Asfura have argued that Trump’s last-minute endorsement was an election interference that ultimately changed the voting results.

The unexpectedly turbulent election was also marred by slow vote counting, which fueled further accusations.

The Central American country remained in limbo for more than three weeks as election authorities delayed vote counting, and at one point paralyzed after a special count The final vote counts have fueled warnings from international leaders.

In a post published on

He also condemned election officials for announcing results while the last 0.07% of votes were counted by razor-thin margins.

For incumbent progressive President Xiomara Castro, The election pointed to a political showdown. He was elected in 2021 on promises to reduce violence and root out corruption.

He was among a group of progressive leaders in Latin America who were elected nearly five years ago with a hopeful message of change, but are now ostracized for failing to deliver on their vision. Castro said last week that he would accept the election results, despite Trump’s claims that his actions in the election were an “election coup.”

But Eric Olson, who served as an independent international observer with the Seattle International Foundation during the Honduran election, and other observers said the rejection of Castro and his party was so definitive that they had little room to challenge the results.

“Even within LIBRE, very few people believe they won the election. They will say there was fraud, Donald Trump interfered, we should rip up the election and vote again,” Olson said. “But they don’t say ‘we won the election.’ It’s clear they didn’t.”

Janetsky reported from Mexico City.