Honduras set to name president-elect after sluggish vote count

___________________

TEGUCIGALPA — Honduras was preparing to name a winner more than three weeks since the Central American country held its presidential election, as a manual recount closed in on Tuesday.

With 99.2 percent of the votes tallied, conservative candidate Nasry Asfura, a 67-year-old businessman backed by US President Donald Trump, held a narrow lead over fellow conservative Salvador Nasralla, a 72-year-old TV star.

The wait for the results of the November 30 polls has caused tensions among Hondurans, and the sluggish count has been accompanied by claims of irregularities and voter fraud.

Once completed, the recount of nearly 2,800 tally sheets with suspected inconsistencies, pored over by hundreds of electoral staff and political delegates, will determine the winner.

The National Electoral Council said on Tuesday that it would declare a winner "with the data that is available up to this moment", but without setting a date for its announcement.

A member of the Military POlice of Public Order (PMOP) stands guard as a woman looks at the "victory wall" of Tegucigalpa's Mayor and candidate for re-election, Jorge Aldana, outside the Electoral Logistics Centre, located at the National Institute for Professional Training (INFOP), where the count of ballots with inconsistencies in Tegucigalpa is taking place on December 19, 2025. (AFP)

Asfura's National Party said it could come as early as Wednesday.

The latest counts put Asfura less than one percentage point ahead of Nasralla, who had demanded a review of thousands of tally sheets he alleged contain irregularities.

The election board has until December 30 to announce a winner.

Last week, thousands of supporters of the ruling leftist Libre party staged a demonstration in the capital Tegucigalpa to protest what they consider "fraud" in the vote.

A soldier was injured during the demonstration, which came a day after eight people were injured when police broke up a similar protest.

On the eve of the election, Trump in a surprise move pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, a member of Asfura's party who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.

Extradited by Honduras to face justice in the United States, Hernandez insists he had been set up by the previous administration of president Joe Biden because of his conservative policies.

The pardon was widely seen as contradicting Trump's crackdown on alleged drug traffickers in Latin America.

Trump also endorsed Asfura, saying they could "work together to fight the narcocommunists," and warned "there will be hell to pay" if the conservative candidate's razor-thin lead was overturned in the count.