Trump-Endorsed Candidate Nasry Asfura Takes Slim Lead In Honduras Presidential Election

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Conservative National Party candidate Nasry Asfura, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, is ahead in the Honduran presidential election with just over 40 percent of the votes counted, according to preliminary results released on Monday.

Asfura, 67, a former mayor of Tegucigalpa, has had 41% of the votes counted so far. Preliminary results showed Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla in second place with nearly 39% of the vote. Rixi Moncada from the ruling LIBRE party came in third place with 20 percent of the votes.

Whichever candidate wins the simple majority will rule the country between 2026-2030.

In the race, Trump weighed in on the tightly contested race to support Asfura in a series of social media posts, saying he could work with her in the fight against drug trafficking and that “if she can’t win, the United States won’t throw good money after bad.”

On Friday, Trump said he would also pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States on drug trafficking and firearms charges. Hernandez, who governed Honduras between 2014 and 2022, was also from the National Party.

Both Asfura and Nasralla said they could restart severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2023. Such a move would mark China’s biggest diplomatic setback in the region in decades.

Sunday’s vote, which also elected 128 members of Congress, hundreds of mayors and thousands of other public officials, took place in a highly polarized environment, with the top three candidates fending off accusations of possible corruption. Moncada suggested he would not recognize the official results.

Most polls showed a virtual tie between the three candidates heading into election day. The Organization of American States has expressed concerns about the electoral process, with a majority of its members calling on the outgoing government of President Xiomara Castro in an emergency session last week to conduct the elections free from intimidation, fraud and political interference.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau also warned that the US would respond “swiftly and decisively to anyone who undermines the integrity of the democratic process in Honduras.”

On Sunday, some frustrated voters and election observers condemned officials for turning away citizens still waiting to vote. The National Electoral Council (CNE) extended the opening hours of polling stations until 18:00 (2400 GMT) and authorized individual polling stations to remain open for an additional hour. However, while voters were still waiting, some places appeared to be closed.

Honduras, where six in 10 citizens live in poverty, suffered a coup in 2009 when an alliance of right-wing military figures, politicians and businessmen overthrew the current president’s husband, Manuel Zelaya. In 2021, Hondurans voted en masse for Castro, ending more than a century of rule by the National and Liberal parties.

The Honduran Attorney General’s Office, aligned with the ruling party, has accused opposition parties of plotting to commit voter fraud, a claim they deny. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into audio recordings that allegedly showed a senior National Party politician discussing plans to influence the election with an unidentified officer. The recordings, which the National Party said were allegedly created using artificial intelligence, were at the center of Moncada’s campaign.

The Honduran military has also faced criticism for demanding that the National Electoral Council provide it with copies of the tallies on election day, in violation of Honduran law.

These tensions contributed to the public’s growing distrust of election officials and the electoral process in general.

Castro, the first woman to lead Honduras, increased public investment and social spending. The economy grew modestly and poverty and inequality decreased, but both remained high. The International Monetary Fund praised his government’s prudent financial management.

The country’s murder rate has also fallen to its lowest level in recent history, but violence continues. Human rights groups have criticized Castro for maintaining a prolonged state of emergency in parts of Honduras and continuing to rely on the police, in line with the approach of his predecessor, Hernandez.

(Reporting by Laura Garcia in Tegucigalpa; Leila Miller in Buenos Aires; Diego Ore in Mexico City; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Lincoln Feast)