Nasry Asfura was declared the winner of Honduras’ razor-thin presidential election, after weeks of delays following technical problems and allegations of fraud.
The conservative National Party candidate – backed by US President Donald Trump – won with 40.3% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), edging out Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party, who got 39.5%.
In a post on X, Asfura said: “Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down.”
Meanwhile, Nasralla said at a press conference: “I will not accept a result built on omissions.” But he also urged his supporters to remain calm.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged all parties to respect the result “so that Honduran authorities may ensure a peaceful transition of authority”.
But the president of the country’s Congress, Luis Redondo, posted saying the result was “completely illegal”.
The vote was held on 30 November but the count was delayed twice by technical outages, which electoral officials called “inexcusable”.
The president of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, blamed the private company tasked with tabulating the results for the delay.
She said the firm had carried out maintenance without warning or checking with the CNE.
The stoppage came a day after the portal displaying real-time results had crashed.
Results of the election were tight and, because of the tumultuous nature of the processing system, around 15% of the tally sheets had to be counted by hand for the winner to be decided.
There have been tensions in Honduras as a result of the delays with protests held across the country last week.
Thousands of supporters of the governing Libre party demonstrated in the capital Tegucigalpa over what they considered fraud in the vote.
The outgoing President, Xiomara Castro, had alleged that an “electoral coup” was taking place and earlier this month said the election was being marred by “interference” from Trump.
When he endorsed Asfura for president, Trump said there would be “hell to pay” if his very narrow lead was overturned in the count.
He also threatened to withdraw financial support from the US if Asfura didn’t win.
In a surprise move, the US president also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a member of Asfura’s National Party, who was serving a 45-year jail sentence in the US on drug and weapons charges.
Castro was barred by the constitution from standing for a second term.
Nine days after the vote, Nasralla accused “corrupt people” of manipulating the vote count in the Central American nation. He also said Trump’s comments had damaged his chances of winning.
In his statement following the announcement of the result, Rubio said the US would “look forward to working with his incoming administration to advance our bilateral and regional security co-operation”, adding the two countries would “end illegal immigration” to the US, while strengthening economic ties.
By BBC News
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