Trump-backed conservative Nasry Asfura wins Honduras election: Authorities

Trump-backed conservative Nasry Asfura wins Honduras election: Authorities Asfura says he is ready to govern after narrow vote as the US urges ‘all parties to respect the confirmed results’. Nasry Asfura, a conservative candidate backed by United States President Donald Trump , has won the closely contested presidential elections in Honduras, the country’s election council has said. The final results, announced on Wednesday - more than 20 days after the vote took place - are likely to lead to challenges in the Central American nation. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Honduras issues arrest warrant for ex-president Hernandez after US pardon list 2 of 3 Honduran military vows to ensure orderly post-election power transfer list 3 of 3 Honduras election official says ‘disturbances’ preventing vote recount According to the electoral authority, known as the CNE, Asfura won 40.3 percent of the vote, edging out centre-right Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla, who received 39.5 percent. In a brief social media post, Asfura thanked the CNE on Wednesday. “Honduras: I am prepared to govern. I will not fail you,” he wrote. Trump had come out strongly in support of Asfura, attacking Nasralla and left-wing candidate Rixi Moncada, who ended up garnering less than 20 percent of the votes. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quick to congratulate Asfura on Wednesday, saying that Washington looks forward to working with him. “The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” Rubio wrote in a social media post. In a separate statement, Rubio urged “all parties to respect the confirmed results” of the elections. Earlier this month, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez - a member of Asfura’s National Party - who was serving a lengthy prison sentence in the US for drug trafficking. Asfura, the former mayor of Honduras’s capital, Tegucigalpa, is of Palestinian descent. But his National Party is staunchly pro-Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Wednesday that he spoke to Asfura and the officials agreed to “strengthen bilateral relations” between the two countries. “I conveyed our warm wishes to the people of Honduras, wished him success in his role, and invited him to visit Israel,” Saar said in a statement. “Honduras has a long history of friendship with the State of Israel and the Jewish people.” Under Hernandez in 2021, Honduras became only the fourth country to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in breach of international law. Asfura has also aligned himself with Trump and other right-wing leaders in the Americas, including Argentina’s Javier Milei . The Argentinian president hailed Honduras’s election results on Wednesday, calling it a victory against “narcosocialism”, although the National Party’s Hernandez is a convicted drug trafficker. “The Honduran people expressed themselves with courage at the ballot boxes and chose to end years of authoritarianism and decay,” Milei wrote in a social media post. “From Argentina, we celebrate the triumph of freedom and reaffirm our commitment to democracy, the popular will, and the unrestricted...

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