Trump-backed ex-mayor declared winner of Honduran presidential election
By Michael Rios, Mauricio Torres, Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN
(CNN) — Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a conservative politician backed by US President Donald Trump, has been declared the winner of the Honduran presidential election, narrowly edging out right-leaning centrist Salvador Nasralla in a contest marked by allegations of foreign intervention and voting irregularities.
With most ballots counted, Asfura, a member of the National Party, was declared the winner of the race with over 40% of the vote, while Nasralla won over 39%, the electoral authority said Wednesday. The ruling party’s leftist candidate Rixi Moncada trailed in a distant third place with 19%.
Asfura is a right-wing businessman and former mayor of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa. The construction magnate ran on a free-market platform with a focus on foreign investment for economic development. He has promised to strengthen national security, the health sector and education.
He has also shown himself to be accommodating to the US president, according to experts. Like his main opponent, he has promised to break ties with Venezuela’s strongman President Nicolás Maduro, who faces a heavy pressure campaign from the US and maintains a cordial relationship with the outgoing Honduran government.
“Honduras: I am prepared to govern,” Asfura said on X after the results were announced. “I will not fail you.”
A seesaw race
The results were announced on Christmas Eve, almost a month after the election took place.
In a video message, electoral council members Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López said that Asfura won by a margin of 0.74% over his closest rival, Nasralla.
Hall, the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said in early December that the narrow margin between the two frontrunners was “historic.”
Both candidates repeatedly switched places throughout the dayslong vote count, which was marked by starts and stops.
Both Nasralla’s party and the ruling Libre party have warned that they will challenge the results.
The release of the preliminary count was halted on December 1 when the candidates were in a statistical tie. Counting resumed the following day, by which point Nasralla had moved into first place, although by a thin margin.
The online vote count was halted again on December 3 due to “maintenance” by the company in charge of the website, according to Hall and López, who criticized the lack of prior notice to the full board.
By December 4, Asfura had taken the lead, which Nasralla rejected, claiming that the electoral council’s online tally suddenly changed overnight.
“(On) Thursday, December 4, 2025, at 03:24 a.m., the screen went blank and an algorithm (similar to the one used in 2013) changed the data. The 1,081,000 votes for @SalvaPresidente were given to Asfura, and the 1,073,000 votes that Asfura had were given to @SalvaPresidente,” he said on X.
Trump influence
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura on Wednesday, saying on X that the US “looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”
Trump endorsed Asfura days before the election was held on November 30. He said on Truth Social that week that they could work together to combat “narco-communists.”
“If (Asfura) doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is,” Trump warned.
The US president also pardoned a key member of Asfura’s party, former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US for drug trafficking offenses.
Members of Honduras’ ruling Libre party harshly criticized Trump’s moves, with many accusing him of meddling in their country’s affairs.
Libre’s presidential candidate Moncada said there was “no doubt that there are two concrete actions, three days before the elections, that are totally interventionist.”
President Xiomara Castro earlier this month condemned Trump for having “threatened” the people of Honduras.
Castro asserted that the electoral process was “marked by threats, manipulation of the preliminary results system, and falsification of the popular will.” She said her government would denounce the situation before the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of American States and other international bodies.
In the US, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioned Trump’s decision to pardon someone with a drug trafficking conviction given the administration’s efforts to disrupt the drug trade in Latin America.
Trump, however, defended his pardon, claiming that Hernández was the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Hernández was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in prison and given an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug trafficking offenses. Prosecutors accused him of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors said, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics.
Hernández insisted he was innocent. He claimed the trial was “rigged” and that it relied on the accusations of criminals who sought revenge against him. On December 3, he thanked Trump for the pardon and promised the Honduran people that he would “continue defending everything we built together.”
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CNN’s Anabella González contributed reporting.
