TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - On the left is a lawyer who rails against "the oligarchy," on the right a construction magnate and a TV host, both of whom warn of a communist menace.

AFP looks at the candidates locked in a tight three-way race to become president of the Central American nation of Honduras on Sunday.

- The continuity candidate -

Rixi Moncada, a 60-year-old lawyer, is the political heir of outgoing left-wing president Xiomara Castro and her husband, ousted ex-president Manuel Zelaya.

During campaigning, Moncada criticized "elites" and vowed to hike taxes on them.

Her stated admiration for the people of communist-run Cuba and crisis-hit Venezuela has fueled attacks from her right-wing rivals, even though she has studiously avoided endorsing those countries' leadership.

Moncada worked as a teacher, lawyer, judge, magistrate, and electoral advisor before becoming a labor minister under Zelaya.

She was accused of corruption as head of the state electricity company, but the accusations were later dismissed.

A married mother of two, she also served as a minister under Castro, holding both the finance and defense portfolios.

Several of her relatives hold public office, which has seen her accused of nepotism.

- The beauty pageant host -

A football commentator, beauty pageant host and local TV star by turns, 72-year-old Salvador Nasralla has been a presidential candidate three times with different parties.

On the economic front, he looks to Argentina's libertarian president Javier Milei.

On security matters, his model is the iron-fisted president of neighboring El Salvador, who has locked up thousands of young men without charge in the name of fighting gang violence.

"I'm going to copy him so that there's no extortion in Honduras and people can walk around peacefully," Nasralla stated.

The flamboyant showman was part of Castro's outgoing government but fell out with the ruling party.

"People don't want communism," he insisted during his campaign, promising to revitalize agriculture, combat drug trafficking and corruption and accomplish in four years what others failed to do "in 200."

Born to Lebanese parents, Nasralla is married to a member of parliament and former Miss Universe contestant 38 years his junior, with whom he has two children.

One of the standout moments of his career, about which he regularly reminisces on social media, was his 1997 television interview with Colombian megastar Shakira.

- The 'grandad' -

At 67 years old, Nasry Asfura is running for president for a second time after losing to Castro in 2021.

"Grandad, at your service!" is his catch phrase.

Asfura's National Party goes into the presidential and parliamentary election tainted by the conviction of its former champion, ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, in the United States for drug trafficking.

"A party is not responsible for the actions of individuals," Asfura argues.

He claims to lead a renewed party focused on the need to "save democracy" from the left, which the Latin American right generally associates with authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

A construction magnate of Palestinian descent, Asfura served two terms as mayor of the capital Tegucigalpa between 2014 and 2022.

He appeared in the 2021 "Pandora Papers" list of offshore companies used to evade taxes but was never charged.

In his speeches, the married father of three daughters, who says he is "allergic" to smartphones, promises "work and more work."