Tegucigalpa, Dec 2 (EFE).-
Conservative candidate Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party opened a lead of more than 10,000 votes over his rival Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the National Party — who is backed by U.S. President Donald Trump — after the preliminary vote count in Honduras resumed Tuesday.
With 70% of ballots counted, Nasralla has 893,718 votes (40.16%), compared with 883,639 (39.70%) for Asfura — a difference of just over 10,000 votes in favor of the Liberal Party candidate.
Further behind is ruling-party candidate Rixi Moncada of the leftist Libre party, with 424,498 votes (19.07%), after insisting Monday that she had not yet “lost” the election and alleging manipulation of preliminary results.
Until the recount resumed Tuesday afternoon, Asfura had been narrowly leading the preliminary results since election night by about 500 votes — a margin that pointed to a virtual tie between the two main contenders.
The updated tally now gives Nasralla a firmer advantage over Asfura, who received explicit backing from Trump. In the days before the Nov. 30 vote, Trump urged Hondurans to support Asfura, calling him “the true friend of freedom in Honduras” during a public message to voters.
These preliminary numbers — still subject to change as the remaining tally sheets are counted — appear to ease the uncertainty that has gripped Honduras over the past 24 hours following technical failures in the preliminary results reporting system.
Nasralla said Tuesday afternoon that his lead would grow in the coming hours and predicted that the National Electoral Council (CNE) could declare him “president-elect” as early as Wednesday.
Hondurans also woke up Tuesday without a clear election winner but with a political shock: the release of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (2014–2022) in the United States after a pardon from Trump, just a year after Hernández was sentenced to more than four decades in prison on drug trafficking charges.
Trump defended his decision in a White House press conference:
“He was the president, and in his country drugs were being sold. And because he was president, they went after him. It was a horrible witch hunt by (Joe) Biden, and a lot of people in Honduras asked me to do it, and I did it. I feel very good about it.”
Hernández’s whereabouts remain unknown, and it is unclear whether he will return to Honduras, where he still faces investigations. His pardon has stirred political controversy within the Honduran government.
Honduran congressional president Luis Redondo, of the ruling Libre party, said the pardon sends a “devastating message” to justice officials and is contradictory to international anti–drug trafficking efforts.
Hernández’s wife, Ana García, said she was emotional and grateful, declaring her husband “a free man again” and thanking Trump for “a day we will never forget.”
More than 6.5 million Hondurans were eligible to vote Sunday for the successor to President Xiomara Castro, who leaves office Jan. 27, 2026, as well as three vice presidents, 128 members of the national legislature, 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament, and 298 municipal governments. EFE
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