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Caribbean-Latin America
Hondurans elect conservative businessman as president (update)
2009-11-30
Much hand-wringing from WaPo as they realize that the country 1) elected a conservative 2) the runner-up was a centrist 3) the leftie candidate got virtually no votes and 4) most people in Honduras with any sense want Mel to go away.
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS -- Hondurans chose a conservative businessman as their new president Sunday in an election that Washington supported but most countries in the hemisphere called illegitimate because it occurred under the shadow of a judicial order coup.

Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, of the traditional National Party, declared victory late Sunday and pledged to form a government of national unity to try to end a five-month crisis that began with the military's ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. With nearly two-thirds of the vote counted, Lobo had 56 percent. That put him well ahead of another centrist candidate, Elvin Santos, who conceded the race.

The U.S. State Department commended the elections in a statement issued at midnight Sunday, saying that Hondurans "took a necessary and important step forward" toward resolving their political crisis and months of international isolation. However, it said, "significant work remains to be done to restore democratic and constitutional order" in the impoverished Central American nation.

The Honduran crisis has caused a split between Washington and allies in the hemisphere who said they cannot recognize elections under a coup-installed government that has shut down media, limited demonstrations and committed other abuses.

Adding to doubts about balloting, electoral observation groups from the Organization of American States, the Carter Center and other prominent institutions declined to monitor the vote.
Why would that raise doubts in the minds of honest people? The OAS has been pro-Mel all the way, and Carter's blessing is useless.
The crisis began on June 28, when Zelaya, who had embraced the leftist agenda of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was arrested on charges related to his campaign to rewrite the constitution. Many Hondurans believed Zelaya was trying to extend his rule. Soldiers bundled him onto a plane for Costa Rica, the first time in 18 years that the military had exiled a president in this hemisphere.

Zelaya, who is not allowed to seek reelection under the constitution, called on Hondurans to boycott Sunday's vote.

"The elections will be a failure," he told Radio Globo on Sunday from the Brazilian Embassy, where he sought sanctuary after sneaking back into the country in September. "The United States will have to rectify its ambiguous position about the coup."

Zelaya's appeal seemed to resonate in poor neighborhoods built on Tegucigalpa's hills. But a steady stream of voters in many middle-class and working-class neighborhoods appeared to defy the call for a boycott.

In the San Francisco neighborhood, where skinny dogs and chickens roamed the dirt streets, just a trickle of voters turned up Sunday morning. Naun Argijo, 21, said his family of 10, which shares a two-room shack, would not vote because they were upset over Zelaya's ouster. "He was the only president who looked out for poor people," Argijo said.

Still, the large demonstrations after Zelaya's ouster have dwindled to small protests. Many Hondurans hope the long-scheduled elections will provide relief from a crisis that has crippled the country's important tourist industry and led to a sharp drop in aid from the United States and international lending institutions.

"We are so anxious for this all to end," said Rosa Maria Flores, 62, a teacher. She was casting a ballot in the working-class Kennedy neighborhood, which was crowded with voters. Zelaya's agenda and his frequent clashes with the country's institutions terrified Hondurans, she said. "Here, we don't want Hugo Chávez."
Posted by:Steve White

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