Nasry Asfura, the conservative candidate for Honduran president backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, was declared the winner on Wednesday more than three weeks after the 30 November election.
The Honduras electoral authority, known as the CNE, said Asfura won 40.3% of the vote, edging out center-right Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla who garnered 39.5%.
The candidate of the ruling LIBRE party, Rixi Moncada, came in a distant third.
Asfura ran on a broad pro-business platform saying private investment was necessary to move the country forward, while his political agenda focused on jobs, education and security.
The results were so close and the ballot processing system so chaotic that around 15% of the tally sheets, comprising hundreds of thousands of ballots, had to be counted by hand to determine the winner.
In the weeks following the vote, LIBRE repeatedly called for protests against what they denounced as an "electoral coup."
The protests interrupted the manual count, blocking officials from accessing the building where tally sheets were being stored.
The results were approved by two electoral council members and one deputy, as disputes continued over the razor-thin vote. The third council member, Marlon Ochoa, was not present in the video declaring the winner.
"Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down," Asfura said in a post on X following the confirmation of the results.
He is due to take office on 27 January for the 2026‑2030 term.
Nasralla rejected the CNE's declaration, saying it had excluded ballots that should have been counted, but urged his supporters to remain calm and refrain from any acts of disruption or violence.
"I will not accept a result based on omissions. Democracy does not shut down because of exhaustion, nor because today is the 24th — this is the saddest Christmas for the Honduran people," Nasralla said at a press conference.
The head of the Honduran Congress also rejected the results.
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