Conservative and centrist candidates led Honduras’ presidential contest with votes from more than half of all polling places counted early Monday.

The Central American country’s National Electoral Council said that Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the National Party had 40.01% of the vote with 55.9% of precincts reporting, followed by the Liberal Party’s Salvador Nasralla (39.78%) and Rixi Moncada of the left-wing incumbent LIBRE Party (19.19%).

President Trump publicly endorsed Asfura, the 67-year-old former mayor of Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, on Friday, writing on Truth Social that “the United States will not be throwing good money after bad” if he was defeated.

“Tito will be a Great President, and the United States will work closely with him in order to ensure the success, with all of its potential, of Honduras! … MAKE HONDURAS GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

In the same message, Trump announced he was pardoning former National Party President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was one year into a 45-year sentence in a US prison for helping drug traffickers move cocaine to the United States.

The American president separately lashed out at Nasralla and Moncada, warning they could lead Honduras down the same path to ruin as Venezuela.

The current president, LIBRE’s Xiomara Castro, has maintained a cordial relationship with Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, while simultaneously working with the Trump administration on security and immigration issues.

Castro, 66, is barred from seeking a second consecutive presidential term under the Honduran constitution.

Nasralla, a 72-year-old sportscaster, has campaigned with various parties over the years and even joined Castro’s ticket four years ago. 

But even in his fourth bid for the presidency, he continued to cast himself as an outsider and his central campaign issue has remained rooting out corruption.

The final stages of the presidential campaign were dominated by the three leading candidates trading accusations of election fixing, leading Honduran and international observers to warn that they could be undermining the process’ credibility.

Moncada,Castro’s handpicked successor, said in the days leading up to the election that she would not accept the preliminary tallies because she believed there was a plot to manipulate them.

Moncada called on her supporters shortly before preliminary results were announced to remain ready to fight until they have 100% of the results. She said she would not comment on the electoral council’s preliminary results until Monday.

Meanwhile, there was concern among the opposition that the governing LIBRE would use the levers of government to give Moncada an advantage in the contest.

Concerns about security and employment were top of mind for many voters.

The homicide and unemployment rates have both improved during the past four years under Castro even as the International Monetary Fund applauded her administration’s fiscal responsibility, but Honduras still has Central America’s highest homicide rate and Hondurans complain about a lack of job opportunities.

Castro’s supporters point to the situation she inherited from Hernández, whom her government extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking charges after he left office.

Hondurans also elected a new Congress on Sunday, as well as voting for hundreds of local positions. 

Those results were not immediately available Monday morning.

With Post wires