After weeks of vote counting, Trump-backed candidate wins Honduras presidential election

World Nasry Asfura speaks at a news conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Dec. 1. The Trump-backed conservative candidate Nasry Asfura won Honduras' presidential election, electoral authorities said Wednesday afternoon.(Leonel Estrada/Reuters) Asfura supporters react at his party's headquarters in Tegucigalpa on Wednesday.(Leonel Estrada/Reuters) Soldiers at a Tegucigalpa airport on Dec. 1 carry ballot boxes from rural polling stations.(Moises Castillo/The Associated Press) Presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla gestures at an event in Tegucigalpa on Nov. 30.(Moises Castillo/The Associated Press) A voter casts a ballot at a Tegucigalpa polling station on Nov. 30.(Moises Castillo/The Associated Press) Presidential candidate Rixi Moncada greets supporters in Tegucigalpa on Nov. 30.(Emmanuel Andres/The Associated Press) Nasry Asfura declared winner of Honduras presidential election after weeks of vote counting Sluggish tallying fueled distrust in nation's fragile electoral system Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura won Honduras' presidential election, electoral authorities said Wednesday afternoon, ending a weeks-long count that has whittled away at the credibility of the Central American nation's fragile electoral system. The election is continuing Latin America's swing to the right, coming just a week after Chile chose the far-right politician Jose Antonio Kast as its next president. Asfura, of the conservative National Party, received 40.27 per cent of the vote in the Nov. 30, edging out four-time candidate Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party, who finished with 39.53 per cent of the vote. Asfura, the former mayor of Honduras' capital Tegucigalpa, won in his second bid for the presidency, after he and Nasralla were neck and neck during a weeks-long vote count that fueled international concern. On Tuesday night a number of electoral officials and candidates were already fighting and contesting the results of the election. Meanwhile, followers in Asfura's campaign headquarters erupted into cheers. "Honduras: I am prepared to govern," wrote Asfura in a post on X shortly after the results were released. "I will not let you down." The results were a rebuke of the current leftist leader, and her governing democratic socialist Liberty and Re-foundation Party, known as LIBRE, whose candidate finished in a distant third place with 19.19 per cent of the vote. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura on Wednesday, writing on a post on X: "The people of Honduras have spoken.... [The Trump administration] looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere." A number of right-leading leaders across Latin America, namely Trump ally Argentine President Javier Milei, also congratulated the politician. Trump endorses Asfura just days before vote Asfura ran as a pragmatic politician, pointing to his popular infrastructure projects in the capital. Trump endorsed the 67-year-old conservative just days before the vote, saying he was the only Honduran candidate with whom the U.S. administration would work. Nasralla has maintained that the election was fraudulent and called for a recount of all the votes just hours before the official results were announced. On Tuesday night, he addressed Trump in a post on X, writing, "Mr. President, your endorsed candidate in Honduras is complicit in...

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