Controversial Victory: Nasry Asfura Wins Presidential Election in Honduras

Thu Dec 25 2025 07:09:05 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Honduras officially announces Nasry Asfura as the winning candidate in the presidential election, backed by Donald Trump amid claims of election fraud and technical delays.

After a protracted election process marred by delays and allegations of fraud, Nasry Asfura, the candidate of the National Party backed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, has been declared the winner of Honduras's presidential election with 40.3% of the votes. His opponent, Salvador Nasralla, received 39.5%. The election results have been contested due to significant technical issues during the counting process, leading to protests from supporters of the opposing party and claims of illegitimacy from the Congress president. U.S. officials have called for a peaceful transition of power, despite the turmoil surrounding the election.

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 stated, 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 was held on 30 November, but the count was delayed twice by technical outages, which electoral officials described as inexcusable.

President of the CNE Ana Paola Hall blamed the private company responsible for counting the votes for the delay, stating the firm conducted maintenance without prior warning. This outage occurred shortly after the online portal displaying live results had crashed.

The election's close results led to around 15% of tally sheets being counted by hand, exacerbating the tensions in Honduras as protests erupted across the country. Thousands of supporters of the governing Libre party protested in the capital, Tegucigalpa, alleging electoral fraud.

Outgoing President Xiomara Castro has accused external forces, including Trump, of interfering in the electoral process, stating an electoral coup was underway.

In a surprising act, Trump had previously pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, a fellow National Party member who was serving a lengthy prison sentence in the U.S. on drug charges. Castro, barred by law from seeking re-election, has accused corrupt individuals of manipulating the vote count.

Nearly ten days after the election, Nasralla expressed his belief that corrupt people influenced the vote count and cited Trump's remarks as detrimental to his chances of winning.

In a statement following the announcement, Rubio expressed his eagerness to work with Asfura's administration to strengthen bilateral relations and tackle illegal immigration issues.

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