Rancher wins in Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Conservative rancher Porfirio Lobo won Honduras’ presidential elections Sunday in voting that many Hondurans hope will end a crippling crisis and others fear will whitewash the overthrow of a leftist leader in a June coup.

Preliminary official results showed the opposition National Party candidate with 56 percent support with more than 60 percent of the vote tally sheets counted. His main rival, Elvin Santos of the ruling Liberal Party, conceded defeat, saying it is time for “unity, the only path to confront the future and ensure the victory of all Hondurans.”

Perhaps more importantly, election officials said more than 60 percent of registered voters cast ballots – a victory for interim leaders who hoped a large turnout would bolster the vote’s legitimacy.

But Manuel Zelaya, the president ousted in the June 28 coup, is certain to challenge that number. He said earlier that his own information from polling stations indicated abstention was as high as 65 percent, insisting the vote had no legitimacy and should not be recognized. No pro-Zelaya presidential candidate ran Sunday.

The candidates’ campaigns have been overshadowed by the debate over whether Hondurans should vote at all in an election largely shunned by international monitors.

The United States, is defending the election, while leftist governments argue it means Central America’s first coup in 20 years has succeeded.

The United States suspended development aid and anti-narcotic cooperation with Honduras over the coup. But U.S. diplomats say Hondurans have the right to choose their next leader in regular elections that were scheduled well before President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster. Neither Zelaya nor the man who replaced him – interim President Roberto Micheletti – are running in Sunday’s election.

Zelaya had said overwhelming abstention would discredit the election and the U.S. would regret its stance.

After polls closed, he claimed in a statement that he had information from 1,400 polling stations indicating that abstention was as high as 65 percent.

“As president of Honduras I declare this process illegitimate,” he said.