TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Nasry Asfura, the Conservative National Party candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, leads Honduras' presidential election with 34% of votes counted, according to preliminary results released on Sunday by the country’s electoral authority.
A former mayor of Tegucigalpa, 67-year-old Asfura had 41% of the votes counted so far. The preliminary results showed Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla in second place with about 39%. Rixi Moncada, of the ruling LIBRE party, had 20%, and was in third place.
Whichever candidate wins a simple majority will govern the country between 2026 and 2030.
Sunday's vote, in which the 128 members of Congress, hundreds of mayors, and thousands of other public officials are also being chosen, took place in a highly polarized climate, with the three top candidates hurling accusations of possible fraud. Moncada has suggested she would not recognize the official results.
In the run-up, Trump weighed in on the tightly contested race to throw his support behindAsfura in a series of social media posts, saying he can work with him to counter drug trafficking and that "if he doesn't win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad."
On Friday, Trump also said he will grant a pardon to former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the U.S. for drug trafficking and firearms charges. Hernandez, who led Honduras from 2014-2022, was also of the National Party.
(Reporting by Laura Garcia in Tegucigalpa; Leila Miller in Buenos Aires; Diego Ore in Mexico City; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Lincoln Feast)
