newYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Nasri Asfora has won Honduras’ 2025 presidential election, handing victory to the center-right National Party of Honduras (PNH) and changing the political landscape in Central America.
The result was 40.3% to 39.5% in favor of Asfoura over the Liberal Party candidate, Salvador Nasrallah, after the vote-counting process was affected for several days due to a technical glitch and allegations by other candidates of vote-rigging. Rexy Moncada, candidate of the ruling Libre Party, came in third place.
The race results were so close and the ballot processing system was so chaotic that about 15% of the tally sheets, representing hundreds of thousands of ballots, had to be manually counted to determine the winner.
Two members of the electoral council and one deputy approved the results, despite disagreements over the small difference in votes. A third council member, Marlon Ocha, did not appear in the video announcing the winner.
Trump has planned a “full and complete pardon” for the former Honduran president convicted of drug trafficking
Tito Asfora defeats Salvador Nasrallah and Rexy Moncada after repeatedly endorsing President Trump (AP)
“Honduras: I am ready to rule. I will not let you down,” Asfora said on Channel X after the results were announced.
But the President of the Honduran Congress rejected the results, calling them an “electoral coup.”
“This is completely outside the law. It has no value,” Congress President Luis Redondo of the LIBRE party told Channel X.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfoura on the occasion of X, saying the United States “looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”
Preliminary results on Monday showed that Asfoura (67 years old) received 41 percent of the votes, which put him ahead of Nasrallah (72 years old), who received about 39 percent.
The results are: The biggest winner and loser of 2025 from the off-year election
President Donald Trump gestures to his supporters during an Election Night watch party at the State Fairgrounds on February 24, 2024. (Wayne McNamee/Getty Images)
On Tuesday, the website set up to share vote results with the public experienced technical problems and crashes, according to the center news agency.
With the candidates receiving just 515 votes, a virtual tie and site crash led to President Trump sharing a post on Truth Social.
“It appears that Honduras is trying to change the results of its presidential election,” he wrote. “If they do that, there will be hell to pay!”
By Thursday, Asfoura received 40.05%, about 8,000 votes ahead of Nasrallah, who received 39.75%, according to Reuters. Reuters, The latter then called for an investigation.
Nasrallah wrote on social media: “I publicly denounce that today at 3:24 am, the screen went dark and an algorithm similar to the one used in 2013 changed the data,” and said that 1,081,000 votes for his party were transferred to Asfoura, while 1,073,000 votes for the National Party were attributed to him in Asfoura.
Former Miss Venezuela blames ‘socialism and open borders’ for her country’s devastating collapse
Rexy Moncada, LIBRE candidate, is a prominent lawyer, financier and former Minister of National Defense. (Associated Press)
Asfora, nicknamed “Tito,” is a former mayor of Tegucigalpa and entered the race with a reputation for leadership and a focus on infrastructure, public order and efficiency.
His victory ended a polarizing election season, in which one of the defining moments of the contest was Trump’s endorsement of a bird.
“if it was [Asfura] “If you don’t win, the United States will not spend good money after bad money,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on November 28.
Before voting began on November 29, Trump also said he would pardon former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who once led the same party to which Asfoura belonged. Herandez is serving a 45-year prison sentence for aiding drug traffickers.
Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado dedicates the award to Trump for “decisive support”
Nasrallah is a high-profile television personality turned politician. (Associated Press)
In the end, the elections witnessed the defeat of the centrist former Vice President of Honduras, Nasrallah, and the leftist Ramona (60 years old), who served under President Xiomara Castro.
As a prominent lawyer, financier, and former Minister of National Defense, she focused on institutional reform and social justice.
Nasrallah, a high-profile television personality turned politician, rallied a grassroots base but failed to turn his popularity into a winning coalition.
He was focused on cleaning up corruption in Honduras. The presidential race in Honduras has also been affected by fraud accusations.
Click here to download the FOX NEWS app
In addition to electing a new president, Hondurans voted for a new Congress and hundreds of local offices.
Reuters contributed to this report.