Trump pick for Honduras’ president prevails

Prolonged vote count raises fraud claims as Latin America swings further to the right.

- BY MARLON GONZÁLEZ AND MEGAN JANETSKY

Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura won Honduras’ presidential election, electoral authorities said this week, ending a weeks-long count that 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 José Antonio Kast as its next president.

Asfura of the conservative National Party received 40.27% of the vote in the Nov. 30 election, edging out four-time candidate Salvador Nasralla of the conservative Liberal Party, who finished with 39.53% 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 already were fighting and contesting the results of the election. Meanwhile, followers in Asfura’s campaign headquarters erupted into cheers.

"Honduras: I am prepared to govern," Asfura wrote on social media shortly after the results were released. "I will not let you down."