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A conservative politician backed by Donald Trump was on Wednesday declared the winner of Honduras’ presidential election, capping weeks of wrangling over the result that involved allegations of fraud.
Honduras’ national electoral council declared Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the National party the country’s president-elect, after securing 40.27 per cent of the vote in the November 30 poll.
Asfura was just over 27,000 votes ahead of Salvador Nasralla, his Liberal party rival in the election, who had been demanding a full recount of disputed ballots.
“Honduras — I’m ready to govern,” Asfura, a former construction magnate and ex-mayor of the capital Tegucigalpa, wrote on X after the electoral authority confirmed his victory. “I won’t let you down.”
Nasralla, who had been making his fourth presidential bid, did not immediately concede defeat.
Rixi Moncada, candidate of the ruling leftist Libre party, came a distant third, with 19.19 per cent of the vote.
The US president unexpectedly waded into the Honduran election days before polling day, saying Asfura was the only candidate he could work with and vowing to cut aid to the central American country if Asfura were not elected.
Trump then announced, shortly before the vote, that he was pardoning disgraced former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, also of the National party, who had been serving a 45-year jail sentence in the US for cocaine trafficking.
Asfura’s victory gives Trump another conservative ally in a region that is strategically important to his goals of cracking down on immigration and drug trafficking.
Trump had said a victory for Libre would open the doors to “narco-terrorists” running Honduras.
“The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” US secretary of state Marco Rubio wrote on X on Wednesday.
“The United States congratulates president-elect [Asfura] and looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”
Argentina’s rightwing populist president Javier Milei called Asfura’s victory a “resounding defeat for narcosocialism”.
The count in the Honduras presidential poll was plagued by allegations of irregularities, technical problems and divisions among members of electoral authority.
There was no immediate reaction from outgoing President Xiomara Castro, of the Libre party, who initially declared the election “null” because of alleged “meddling” by Trump but has since vowed to hand over power to her successor on January 27.
Castro’s husband Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed as president in a military coup in 2009, had been urging supporters to take to the streets.
Rodolfo Zelaya, a former senior National party congressman who is not related to the former president, said he did not expect Hernández to try to use his influence now his party was back in power. He faces an arrest warrant should he seek to return home.
“The president is Tito Asfura — no doubt about that,” Rodolfo Zelaya said. “I don’t think Juan Orlando Hernández is looking for power now. I think he’s going to dedicate himself to clearing his name and legacy while he decides what to do.”
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