A businessman who has US President Donald Trump’s backing for the presidency of Honduras was locked in a “technical tie” with a rightwing television host after a preliminary vote count, the Central American country’s electoral body said on Monday.
Nasry Asfura, 67, led 72-year-old rival Salvador Nasralla by just 515 votes, making it a “technical tie”, National Electoral Council (CNE) head Ana Paola Hall said on social media after a partial digital tally of Sunday’s down-to-the wire ballot.
She called for “patience” as the CNE starts a manual count in a vote that left the ruling left-leaning party out in the cold in one of Latin America’s most impoverished and violent countries.
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Days before the vote, former Tegucigalpa mayor Asfura won the backing of Trump as the US president sought to put his finger on the scale of another Latin American election.
Trump has become increasingly vocal about his support for allies in the region, threatening to cut aid to Argentina and Honduras if his picks do not win.
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Ally Javier Milei came out on top in Argentina’s midterm elections but it is not yet clear whether Trump’s endorsement will be enough to secure victory for Asfura, whose campaign slogan was: “Grandad, at your service!”