Hondurans Vote in Tight Race After Trump’s Surprise Endorsement and Pardon Announcement

Voters across Honduras began casting ballots Sunday in a closely contested presidential election that was upended in the final days by a surprise intervention from U.S. President Donald Trump, who publicly endorsed one candidate and announced plans to pardon a former Honduran president.

At a school serving as a polling place in the capital, party tables, banners, flags and loud music marked the scene as dozens of people waited to enter. Alongside the presidential race, Hondurans were electing a new Congress and hundreds of local officials.

Front‑running candidates

Although five names appeared on the ballot, polls indicated three candidates were in genuine contention:

• Rixi Moncada, 60 — a former finance minister who later served as defense secretary under President Xiomara Castro and is the candidate of the left-leaning LIBRE (Liberty and Re‑foundation) party. Moncada has pledged to "democratize" an economy marked by extreme inequality.
• Salvador Nasralla — making his fourth bid for the presidency, this time as the candidate of the Liberal Party, presenting himself as an outsider who can tackle entrenched corruption.
• Nasry "Tito" Asfura — former mayor of Tegucigalpa and the standard-bearer for the conservative National Party, campaigning to restore the party’s reputation and emphasize pro‑business policies.

U.S. intervention and pardon

The campaign, which had been dominated by mutual accusations about potential vote manipulation, took a new turn when President Trump publicly endorsed Asfura while criticizing his rivals. Days later Trump announced he would pardon ex‑President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving a 45‑year sentence in a U.S. prison after being convicted in connection with helping drug traffickers move cocaine to the United States.

Analysts said the immediate electoral impact of the U.S. intervention was uncertain, but the moves underscored renewed U.S. involvement in the region and came amid broader tensions, including a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and threats directed at Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Many Hondurans said the sudden attention left them uneasy and heightened the stakes for a peaceful vote.

Voters on the ground

Reactions at polling sites were mixed. Ruben Darío Molina, 55, a security guard who had been deported to Honduras after 20 years in the United States, said he would not vote because of work obligations and expressed deep disillusionment with politicians: "I don't believe in politicians. Politicians are garbage. They use you like a ladder (to move up)."

By contrast, 65‑year‑old taxi driver Moises Espinal Medina planned to vote for the National Party slate. He praised Asfura for infrastructure projects in Tegucigalpa aimed at easing traffic and said he supported the party his family had backed for generations.

Election administration and timeline

National Electoral Council President Ana Paola Hall called on all candidates to respect the rules and refrain from declaring victory until the council confirms a winner. Polling stations were scheduled to close at 5 p.m. local time (2300 GMT); the council planned to release preliminary results around 9 p.m. local time (0300 GMT Monday), while keeping up to 30 days to certify final results.

More than 4,000 Honduran and international observers were deployed across nearly 6,000 polling locations to monitor the process.

Correction: It was Rixi Moncada — not President Xiomara Castro — who made the comment about promising to "democratize" the economy.