Honduras Presidential Election Concludes
Nasry Asfura, the candidate backed by former US President Donald Trump, has been declared the winner of the Honduras presidential election. This announcement follows weeks of delays, technical issues, and allegations of fraud surrounding the vote held on November 30.
Election Results and Allegations
According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), Asfura, representing the conservative National Party, secured 40.3% of the vote. Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party received 39.5%.
The vote count experienced two delays attributed to technical outages. Ana Paola Hall, president of the CNE, stated that a private company responsible for tabulation performed maintenance without prior warning or CNE approval, which led to the system stoppage a day after the real-time results portal crashed. Due to these issues and the tight race, approximately 15% of the tally sheets were manually counted.
Reactions and International Involvement
Amid the delays, allegations of electoral manipulation emerged. Luis Redondo, president of the country's Congress, declared the result "completely illegal." Outgoing President Xiomara Castro alleged an "electoral coup" and "interference" from former President Trump earlier in the month.
Nasralla also accused "corrupt people" of manipulating the vote count nine days after the election and stated that Trump's comments had adversely affected his chances of winning. Protests occurred across the country, with thousands of supporters of the governing Libre party demonstrating in the capital, Tegucigalpa, over perceived fraud.
Former US President Donald Trump had publicly endorsed Asfura, stating there would be "hell to pay" if Asfura's narrow lead was overturned and threatening to withdraw US financial support if Asfura did not win. Additionally, Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, a member of Asfura's National Party, who was serving a 45-year jail sentence in the US on drug and weapons charges.
Following the announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged all parties to respect the election outcome to ensure a peaceful transition of authority. Rubio also expressed the US's anticipation of working with the incoming administration to advance bilateral and regional security cooperation, aiming to "end illegal immigration to the United States" while strengthening economic ties.