Nasry Asfura, a conservative politician of Palestinian descent who was backed by US President Donald Trump in a contentious election, will become the next leader of Honduras, the Central American country's electoral body said on Wednesday.
The result came after weeks of delay following the November 30 election that was beset by technical problems, delays and fraud allegations.
The electoral authority said the National Party's Mr Asfura had won 40.3 per cent of the vote, edging out centre-right Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla who drew 39.5 per cent. The candidate of the ruling Libre party, Rixi Moncada, came a distant third.
Mr Asfura is a 67-year-old businessman and the former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa. He is a Palestinian Christian, whose family moved to Honduras in the 1940s. Many Central and South American countries are home to large Arab and Palestinian communities. Mr Nasralla is also of Palestinian descent.
“Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down,” Mr Asfura said in a post on X following the confirmation of the results.
The head of the Honduran Congress rejected the declaration of a winner, describing it as an “electoral coup”.
“This is completely outside the law. It has no value,” Congress president Luis Redondo, of the ruling Libre party, wrote on X.
Mr Trump threw his support behind Mr Asfura, writing in a Truth Social post before the election that he was the “only real friend of freedom in Honduras” and urging people to vote for him. Mr Trump also threatened to cut off US financial support to Honduras if Mr Asfura did not win and pardoned former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, also of Mr Asfura's National Party, who had been serving a 45-year sentence in the US on drug trafficking and weapons charges.
The US congratulated Mr Asfura, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying he looked forward to working with his administration.
Amid delays in the count, Mr Trump weighed into the election again alleging fraud without providing evidence and saying there would be “hell to pay” if Honduras changed preliminary results that had put Mr Asfura ahead.
Mr Trump's backing of Mr Asfura, experts say, is part of his push to mould a conservative bloc across Latin America, stretching from Nayib Bukele in El Salvador to Javier Milei in Argentina.
Both Mr Nasralla and the Libre party have decried Mr Trump's comments as election meddling.
Mr Nasralla told Reuters that the last-minute interference from Trump had damaged his chances of winning.
