Almost a month after the elections were held, the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras proclaimed the candidate of the far-right National Party of Honduras (PNH), businessman and former mayor of Tegucigalpa Nasry Asfura, as president-elect.

Asfura was personally endorsed by Donald Trump on the eve of the elections, who said that if his preferred candidate did not win, there would be negative consequences for Honduras, which analysts, movements, and political leaders from across the political spectrum have interpreted as foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Central American country.

According to the highest electoral authority, Asfura obtained 40.27% (1,479,822 votes), closely followed by former television presenter and former vice president Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH), who obtained 39.53% (1,452,796 votes). In third place is former minister and candidate for the leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), Rixi Moncada, with 19.19%.

The President of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, defended the actions of the institution she heads, despite the multiple accusations and criticisms it has received due to the delay in announcing the results and recorded irregularities in the counting process. Several politicians have stated unequivocally that electoral fraud has taken place.

Accusations of fraud

Among the critics are members of the CNE itself, such as Marlo Ochoa, who serves as senior advisor: “Continuing their tradition of illegalities, the representatives of the two-party system, Councilors Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López, have rushed to impose, from an embassy, the final declaration of the presidential election without having completed the vote count and without even having resolved the complaints and demands for a recount. Of course, I understand that the United States and the elites allied with organized crime want a president who responds to their interests, regardless of whether he emerges from an electoral coup.”

In addition, Ochoa stated: “Honduras will only be free, sovereign, and independent when Hondurans are the masters of their own destiny. I ask that it be recorded in the national memory that today, December 24, 2025, the date on which we celebrate the birth of the redeemer crucified by the Roman Empire, was the day that in Honduras, the will of the people was murdered and supplanted by that of the empire. They cannot crucify the truth!”

For his part, Nasralla, who at one point claimed he was sure of victory, said that electoral fraud had been committed and that he would not recognize Asfura as the winner: “The will of the sovereign is worth less than a penny. The people vote for the candidate of their choice, and the corrupt members of all parties decide who will govern in a pact of impunity in which they forgive each other’s crimes.”

The Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) wrote in a statement on December 24, that it rejected CNE’s “illegal declaration” of Asfura as the president-elect, “along with the irregularities of the process, foreign interference, and the lack of a full vote count, prevents the legitimacy of the 2025 General Elections.”

Former presidential candidate Moncada added to these criticisms, stating that an electoral coup has been staged to the detriment of Honduran democracy, which in recent years has survived a coup d’état by the army and several allegations of electoral fraud, such as when Juan Orlando Hernández was accused of being a president who won the election fraudulently.

On her X account, Moncada denounced US interference in the elections and the alleged complicity of the economic elites in committing the crime: “In Honduras, the CNE, following the instructions of the empire, assassinated our fledgling democracy, but our people are not naive: the proclamation of the ‘president-elect’ is a fraud and a foreign imposition. They betrayed the homeland. The civilized peoples of the world should know that the president-elect is one of the businessmen who asked for Donald Trump’s intervention. In the electoral silence, they paid for massive threatening messages against voters who receive remittances, with the sole intention of twisting the will of the people.”

Adding to the list of growing accusations, a report was published in early December by the outlet The Intercept, which revealed that residents in working class neighborhoods faced threats by members of the notorious gang MS-13 to vote for Asfura. Residents reportedly received voice notes warning that those who voted for left-wing LIBRE “have three days to leave the area” and “If you don’t follow the order, we’re going to kill your families, even your dogs. We don’t want absolutely anyone to vote for LIBRE. We’re going to be sending people to monitor who is going to vote and who followed the order. Whoever tries to challenge the order, you know what will happen.”

For his part, Asfura, the winning candidate, said: “Honduras, I am ready to govern. I will not let you down.” In addition, the right-wing candidate thanked the CNE for its work after the controversial announcement of the results: “I recognize the great work done by the (CNE) councilors and the entire team that carried out the elections.”

However, Asfura will now have to bear the weight of accusations of electoral fraud. If the votes for Nasralla and Moncada are added together, more than half the country not only did not vote for the president-elect, but a large proportion of those voters claim, following their candidates, that a terrible electoral fraud was committed in Honduras. Thus, Asfura will begin his term with enormous wear and tear, delegitimization, and accusations of crimes before he even takes office.

The post Nasry Asfura is proclaimed president-elect of Honduras amid allegations of electoral fraud appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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