Hondurans face weeks of uncertainty as election ends in tie

Michael McDonald, Bloomberg News on Dec 1, 2025

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Honduras risks weeks of uncertainty after Sunday’s presidential election was tied between a candidate backed by Donald Trump and a former sportscaster the U.S. leader attacked as a “borderline communist."

Nasry Asfura, a conservative former mayor of the nation’s capital, had 39.91% of votes when the electoral authority declared the quick count over, while Salvador Nasralla had 39.89%. Trump said he would refuse to work with Nasralla.

With 1.9 million ballots tallied, Asfura had just 515 votes more than his rival, the head of the electoral authority Ana Paola Hall said in a post on X. Authorities are now starting a vote-by-vote tally, a process that might take weeks, after the quick count was ruled a “technical tie.”

Trump stunned Hondurans two days before the vote with his intervention in favor of Asfura, as well as with his decision to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, a former Honduran president sentenced to 45 years in prison after being convicted of cocaine trafficking and weapons offenses. Hernández belonged to Asfura’s National Party of Honduras.

“With President Donald Trump threatening to cut U.S. financial support to Honduras if Asfura does not win, the bilateral relationship with the country’s main trading partner was also on the ballot,” said Arantza Alonso, Senior Americas Analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft. “In a country where remittances represent around a quarter of GDP, voters can hardly afford to be at odds with Washington.”

The electoral authority has until Dec. 30 to declare a winner. The next president will take office on Jan. 27.

Hall called for calm and patience from voters. In 2017, weeks of deadly street protests erupted in the country after Hernández won re-election in a vote widely viewed as fraudulent. Police clashed with protesters who blocked roads and set fire to tires across the country.

Both the leading candidates have pledged to cut Honduras’ diplomatic ties with Beijing and go back to recognizing Taipei. The current president, Xiomara Castro, established relations with Beijing in 2023, but Asfura and Nasralla say that the trade relationship with China is unfair and has cost jobs.

Ruling party candidate Rixi Moncada, a leftist who has warm relations with Caracas, trailed in third place with 19.2% of the vote. In Honduras, the president is elected in a single round.

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