Honduras Declares Nasry Asfura President After Contested, Delayed Election

According to official CNE data, Asfura won 40.27 per cent of the vote, followed by the candidate of the Liberal Party, Salvador Nasralla, who garnered 39.53 per cent of all ballots, and Rixi Moncada from the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party, who obtained 19.19 per cent of the vote.

The CNE's announcement was made 24 days after the election day, following postponements due to malfunctions in the vote-counting system claimed by relevant authorities and allegations of irregularities by several political actors who claimed that these could constitute electoral fraud, reports Xinhua news agency.

Before the election day, US President Donald Trump endorsed Asfura and suggested that US aid to Honduras could be withheld if Asfura did not win.

On December 9, Honduran President Xiomara Castro condemned what she described as external interference in the country's elections, saying the electoral process was marked by "threats, coercion and manipulation." She specifically criticised Trump's involvement and comments as undermining Honduran sovereignty and democratic norms.

Earlier, Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya had also accused US President Donald Trump of "foreign interference" in Honduras' presidential elections, after Trump publicly backed the conservative National Party's candidate and pardoned another former president from the same party.

Zelaya, who serves as the general coordinator of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), questioned the early release from a US prison of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had served just two years of a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking.

According to preliminary results from the National Electoral Council, the election was virtually tied between the two right-of-centre candidates: Nasry Asfura of the National Party and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party. Zelaya had alleged that Trump's actions aimed to "twist the popular will."

- IANS