Tie in the Honduran presidential election: What now?
Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla obtained about 39% of the votes each: a gap too small to define a winner.
Salvador Nasralla (left) and Nasry Asfura (right).
The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras suspended the transmission of results of Honduras’ 2025 presidential election. The council explained that the suspension is due to a "technical tie" between the candidates, separated by a mere 515 votes.
The candidates still in the race are Nasry Asfura, of the National Party and Salvador Nasralla, of the Liberal Party. The first results obtained by the CNE left the ruling party out of the race, represented by candidate Rixi Moncada. These results also confirmed a shift to the right of the electorate, which punished the leftist government of Xiomara Castro.
As the count continued, neither Asfura nor Nasralla managed to gain a majority. In fact, the distance between them narrowed: if Asfura had 40% of support with 40% of the votes counted and Nasralla 38%, with more than 44% counted, the latter rose more than one point.
The last available count, with 57% of the ballots counted, showed a tight 39.91% for Asfura and 39.89% for Nasralla.
The presiding counselor of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, was in charge of announcing the halt in the vote count. "Faced with this technical tie, we must remain calm," she said in a message on social media in which she celebrated the peace in which the elections had been held.
From now on, a manual recount will begin to determine the winner of the election. If the tie persists even after a special recount, the National Electoral Council must order a repeat election within 20 days, according to local media El Heraldo.
The CNE has 30 days to make a pronouncement.
Who are the two candidates running in the election?
- Salvador Nasralla is a centrist figure with a widely recognized name in Honduras. He presented his candidacy as an anti-corruption and centrist option, aimed at the voter disenchanted with the traditional elites.
- Entrepreneur and former mayor of Tegucigalpa, Nasry Tito Asfura, is the candidate of the National Party, which governed Honduras for more than a decade. His discourse aims at security, investment and fiscal order, reinforcing his international link with the West and especially with the United States. Both Donald Trump and the Argentinean president, Javier Milei, backed his candidacy.
Nasralla assures that projections show him as winner
The Liberal Party presidential candidate claimed victory was in his favor before the suspension, assuring on social media that the "national projection" gave him about 48% of the votes. "With the missing tally sheets and the actual distribution by department: NASRALLA is the projected winner," he said.
"The voice of the people was expressed without fear. And together, with civility and courage, we showed that Honduras, with the power of the vote, can change its history," he posted later. He added:
"To all our structure at the national level I send this message, no one leaves their polling station, no one leaves the voting center until the end. Honduras needs us to take care of every vote with courage and responsibility. May God watch over the will of the people, free us from any attempt of fraud and keep us steadfast until the last moment."
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