By Diyar Guldogan and Jorge Antonio Rocha
ADDS REACTIONS FROM OTHER CANDIDATES
MEXICO CITY (AA) - Conservative National Party candidate Nasry Asfura has won Honduras’ presidential election, the Central American nation’s electoral authority announced Wednesday.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) said Asfura, who was backed by US President Donald Trump, secured 40.3% of the vote. He is due to take office on Jan. 27 and will serve a four-year term.
Asfura edged out center-right Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla, who received 39.5% of the vote.
Nasralla rejected the validity of the results and continues to insist the election was rigged.
Earlier this month, he sent a formal letter and made multiple public appeals to Trump requesting support for a comprehensive vote recount following the Nov. 30 election, alleging the results had been tampered with to favor Asfura.
Following the CNE’s announcement, Nasralla continues to share what he says is evidence that back up his claims that Asfura was elected through widespread fraud.
"Did the members of the European Union’s election observation mission not see this fraud? And neither did the members of the Organization of American States (OAS) election observation mission?" he wrote on X.
"That is why I am calling for a vote-by-vote recount of 10,000 ballot boxes, representing 2 million votes," he added.
Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the ruling Libre Party, who finished third, garnering 19.19% of the vote, has also challenged the election’s legitimacy, labeling Asfura’s victory an “electoral coup.” Like Nasralla, she accuses the CNE of undermining the special scrutiny process by refusing to review thousands of ballots that were allegedly manipulated.
Amid the political turmoil, Asfura has become the 12th president of Honduras since democracy was restored in the country in 1981.
The son of Palestinian Christian immigrants who arrived in Honduras in the 1940s and a construction mogul, Asfura campaigned on promises of job creation, improved security and increased foreign investment.
His victory has been overshadowed by allegations of foreign intervention following public expressions of support and promises of assistance from Trump days before last month’s polls..