The far-right candidate Nasry Asfura and the conservative Salvador Nasralla are in a situation of technical tie with around 40 percent of votes each once 56.85 percent of the minutes have been processed, according to the latest information released by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras.
Asfura (National Party of Honduras) would be in the lead with 746,708 votes (39.93 percent), while Nasralla (Liberal Party of Honduras) would have 745,620 votes (39.87 percent), a difference of just one thousand votes, according to this Monday’s second bulletin presented by the CNE, which reflects a growing trend for Nasralla in relation to previous bulletins.
Third place would go to the ruling party Rixi Moncada (Liberty and Refoundation Party, Libre), with 358,300 votes (19.16 percent), followed by Nelson Ávila, and Mario Rivera Callejas, both with less than 1 percent of the preferences.
Meanwhile, Nasralla has declared himself a “projected winner” based on an estimate that he himself published on his social networks and that would give him about 120,000 votes ahead of Asfura.
Nasralla stated in a message on X that many votes remain to be counted in Cortés, the most populated department in the country, and assured that the vote there was favorable to him.
“With the missing minutes and the actual distribution by department: NASRALLA is the projected winner,” he published. The figures published would give him 1,276,000 votes (48.8 percent), ahead of Asfura (1,156,000 votes and 44.2 percent). Moncada would be third with 410,000 votes (15.7 percent).
Nasralla refers to the fact that the result of the “enormous” Cortés constituency still remains, in which he hopes to win more than 60 percent of the votes. Yoro, Atlántida and Colón would also be favorable to Nasralla, while “Asfura wins many rural departments” with a “lesser” electoral weight than the urban north. “Papi has little left to grow up,” says Nasralla in reference to the nickname by which Asfura is known.
Honduran electoral legislation does not contemplate the second round, so the candidate who obtains the greatest number of votes will be the next tenant of the José Cecilio del Valle Palace, the presidential headquarters.
The hectic campaign has been marked by accusations of electoral fraud in a country historically hit by corruption and drug trafficking, as well as by the interference of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who has publicly spoken out in favor of Asfura and announced his intention to pardon former president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted in the United States for drug trafficking, if his rival wins.