Asfura wins Honduras presidential election with Trump endorsement

Nasry Asfura has received Honduras’ 2025 presidential election, delivering victory to the right-wing Nationwide Celebration of Honduras (PNH) and altering Central America’s political panorama.

The 40.3% to 39.5% end in favor of Asfura over Liberal Celebration candidate Salvador Nasralla got here after the vote-counting course of was delayed for days by technical issues and claims by different candidates of vote fraud. Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the ruling LIBRE get together, completed a distant third.

The outcomes of the race have been so shut, and the vote processing system so chaotic, that about 15% of the ballots, representing a whole lot of 1000’s of ballots, needed to be counted by hand to find out the winner.

Two members of the electoral council and a deputy accepted the outcomes, regardless of disagreements concerning the razor-thin vote distinction. A 3rd council member, Marlon Ocha, was not current in a video declaring the winner.

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Tito Asfura defeats Salvador Nasralla and Rixi Moncada after repeated statements of assist from President Trump (AP)

“Honduras: I’m prepared to manipulate. I can’t allow you to down,” Asfura stated on X after the outcomes have been confirmed.

Nevertheless, the pinnacle of the Honduran Congress rejected the outcomes, describing them as an “electoral coup.”

“That is utterly outdoors the legislation,” Congress President Luis Redondo of the LIBRE get together stated on X. “It has no worth.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura on X and stated the US “seems to be ahead to working along with his administration to advance prosperity and safety in our hemisphere.”

Initially, Monday’s preliminary outcomes confirmed Asfura, 67, had received 41% of the vote, placing him forward of Nasralla, 72, who had about 39%.

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President Donald Trump gestures to supporters throughout an election night time watch get together on the State Fairgrounds on February 24, 2024. (Win McNamee/Getty Photos)

On Tuesday, the web site, which was set as much as share voting tallies with the general public, skilled technical issues and crashed The Associated Press.

As a result of the candidates mixed solely had 515 votes, a digital tie and web site crash prompted President Trump to share a message on Fact Social.

“It seems that Honduras is making an attempt to alter the result of the presidential election,” he wrote. “In the event that they do, there will probably be hell to pay!”

As of Thursday, Asfura had 40.05%, about 8,000 votes forward of Nasralla, who had 39.75%, in accordance with the figures. Reuters, with the latter subsequently asking for an investigation.

“I publicly declare that right this moment, at 3:24 am, the display went darkish and an algorithm, just like the one utilized in 2013, modified the information,” Nasralla wrote on social media, transferring 1,081,000 votes for his get together to Asfura, whereas 1,073,000 votes for Asfura’s Nationwide Celebration have been attributed to him.

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Rixi Moncada, LIBRE’s candidate, is a outstanding lawyer, financier and former minister of nationwide protection. (Related Press)

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Asfura, nicknamed ‘Tito’, is a former mayor of Tegucigalpa and had entered the race with a popularity for management and give attention to infrastructure, public order and effectivity.

His victory ended a polarized marketing campaign season, with one of many contest’s defining moments being Trump’s endorsement of Asfura.

“If he [Asfura] doesn’t win, the USA is not going to throw good cash after dangerous,” Trump wrote on November 28 on his Fact Social platform.

Earlier than the election started on November 29, Trump additionally stated he would pardon former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who as soon as led the identical get together as Asfura. Hernandez is serving a 45-year jail sentence for aiding drug traffickers.

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Nasralla is a high-profile tv character turned politician. (Related Press)

In the end, the election noticed the defeat of Honduras’ centrist former vice chairman Nasralla and leftist Moncada, 60, who served beneath President Xiomara Castro.

Moncada, a outstanding lawyer, financier and former protection secretary, targeted on institutional reform and social justice.

Nasralla, a high-profile tv character turned politician, mobilized a base however didn’t translate his recognition right into a profitable coalition.

He targeted on cleansing up Honduran corruption. The Honduran presidential race was additionally affected by allegations of fraud.

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Along with the election of a brand new president, Hondurans voted for a brand new congress and a whole lot of native positions.

Reuters contributed to this report.