São Paulo, Brazil — Over 24 hours after polls closed on Sunday the people of Honduras still do not know who their next president will be.
Right-wing National Party candidate Nasry Asfura and center-right former TV host Salvador Nasralla are locked in a virtual tie after the country’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced the conclusion of the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission (TREP), according to CNN.
By Monday, Asfura had tallied 39.91% of votes counted while Nasralla had grabbed 39.89%, a separation of just 515 votes.
Meanwhile, the left-wing ruling party candidate, Rixi Moncada, had secured just 19.16%, leaving her out of reach of a victory.
The technical tie could paralyze the election and force a recount.
According to Honduran electoral law, the CNE has 30 days to declare the results and can recount the votes or call for new elections.
Ana Paola Hall, president of the CNE, asked Hondurans for patience while the electoral body reviews the results.
“Given this technical tie, we must remain calm, be patient, and wait for the National Electoral Council (CNE) to finish counting the ballots for contingency 1 and 2,” she wrote on X. “Afterward, the special scrutiny process will be carried out, thus finalizing the general scrutiny.”
Trump’s support
Ahead of elections, U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media to throw his support behind the conservative Asfura.
Trump said the United States will be very “supportive” if the right-wing candidate wins.
“If Tito Asfura wins for President of Honduras, because the United States has so much confidence in him, his Policies, and what he will do for the Great People of Honduras, we will be very supportive,” he wrote on Truth Social.
In the same post, Trump also announced that he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted last year in a New York courtroom of drug trafficking and weapons charges and is serving a 45-year sentence.
Hernández is the former leader of Asfura’s National Party. Trump’s pardon is at odds with his aggressive drug interdiction efforts, targeting go-fast boats his administration says are shuttling drugs off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia.
On Monday, the U.S. Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said the election results are “preliminary” and the process needs to keep going until all the ballots have been counted.
Featured image credit:
Image: Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla, Hondura’s presidential candidates
Source: Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan) / Official Photo by Shufu Liu / Office of the President
