Nasry Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras's presidential election, after weeks of delays following technical problems and allegations of fraud.
The conservative National Party candidate - backed by US President Donald Trump - won with 40.3% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), edging out Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party, who got 39.5%.
In a post on X, Asfura said, Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged all parties to respect the result so that Honduran authorities may ensure a peaceful transition of authority.
However, the president of the country's Congress, Luis Redondo, claimed the result was completely illegal. The vote, held on November 30, was hampered by technical outages, which electoral officials labeled inexcusable.
President of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, attributed the delays to maintenance conducted by the private company responsible for result tabulation without prior warning. The portals displaying real-time results experienced crashes, further complicating the situation.
After a tumultuous counting process, which required about 15% of tally sheets to be hand-counted, the results sparked tensions across the country. Thousands of supporters of the governing Libre party protested in Tegucigalpa, claiming electoral fraud. Outgoing President Xiomara Castro accused foreign interference from Trump and declared an electoral coup.
Trump’s endorsement of Asfura included threats of withdrawing US financial support should Asfura lose. Following the election, the US continues to express commitments to work with Asfura's government, focusing on bilateral cooperation and immigration issues.
In a surprising move, Trump also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, a member of Asfura's party, who had faced a 45-year sentence in the US on drug and weapons charges.
As the political landscape remains unstable, Nasralla has accused corrupt individuals of manipulating the vote count, stating that Trump's remarks negatively impacted his campaign. Rubio expressed eagerness to advance cooperation between Honduras and the US with Asfura’s administration.
