On 24 local time, the Honduran National Election Commission announced that the country‘s Nationalist candidate, Asfura, had been elected as the new president. However, the Liberal candidate Nasrullah, who fell behind by a meager vote count, refused to acknowledge the election results. Previously, the vote counting process had experienced several weeks of delays, technical problems, and accusations of fraud. The Honduran newspaper El Libertador reported that the Election Commission hastily announced Asfura‘s election before a full review of the election results had been completed. Honduran parliamentary president Redondo said on social media, “The election results were completely illegal, and this was an election coup.” Meanwhile, the U.S. government has expressed congratulations to Asfura.
According to the Honduras Daily, the results showed that Asfura received 40.27 percent of the vote, while Nasrullah lost with a slight disadvantage of 39.53 percent. This result represents a heavy blow to the currently ruling left-wing Freedom and Reconstruction Party, whose candidate Moncada received 19.19 percent of the vote. The Election Commission said that more than 98 percent of the vote count work had been completed, and that Asfura‘s election victory result was “mathematically impossible” to be overturned. Reuters said Asfura will take office on January 27 next year for a four-year term.
“I will not accept a result based on a mistake,” Nasrullah said on 24. “Because it does not fully reflect the true intentions of the citizens‘ ballot, it should not be announced before all the votes have been counted.” He claimed that he would “defend the ballot results in a legal and peaceful manner until the truth is revealed.”
Some members of the Honduran National Election Commission also questioned the results of the general election on the 24th. According to the Honduran Liberator newspaper, members Hall and Lopez said that the committee used the controversial “preliminary election result transmission system” to hastily announce the victory of Astra in a situation where the special vote counting procedure had not yet been completed according to law and there were still six days available for checking anomalies. Other officials also said that announcing the election results without completing all the statutory administrative procedures constituted a criminal crime, especially as many citizens strongly demanded “vote-by-vote counting”, and the prosecution has already grasped multiple official reports about fraud in this election, “this election is an election coup.” The U.S. media quoted experts as saying that Astra‘s road to power transfer next year may be in trouble.
According to reports, the presidential, parliamentary, and local elections in Honduras were held on November 30th. The preliminary results were originally scheduled to be announced that night, but were delayed due to claims by relevant agencies that the vote-counting system was malfunctioning.
Reuters said on the 25th that because the election results were so close and the counting system was so chaotic, about 15 percent of the hundreds of thousands of votes needed to be counted manually to determine the winner. The Honduran Daily said the delay in the counting process caused high tensions within Honduras. The results of the 24th election were announced after the National Election Commission completed a special review of 2,792 election records. These records were suspected of inconsistencies and errors, and a re-checking process was initiated last week. Nasrullah accused violations during the election process, while Moncada refused to acknowledge the election results. Honduran President Castro, who is about to leave office, initially criticized the U.S. government for interfering with the election, but then said his government would respect the official announcements of the election agencies. U.S. President Trump publicly supported Asfra a few days before the election, saying he was the only Honduran candidate the U.S. government was willing to cooperate with, publicly calling for voters to vote for him, and hinting that if other candidates won, it might affect the two countries‘ relations.
AFP reported that the 67-year-old Asfura was a former Palestinian-born builder who served twice as mayor of the Honduran capital, vigorously promoting infrastructure construction during his tenure. The Honduran Herald reported that Asfura was involved in an investigation into embezzlement of municipal funds during his political career.
Asfra‘s election, according to The Honduran Daily, means that the right wing will return to power in Honduras. The last time the right wing was in power was during Hernández‘s presidency (2014-2022).
The New York Times said that if the election results were finally confirmed, it would be Trump‘s victory. Trump has been actively supporting certain Latin American leaders since taking office again this year.