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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Honduras goes to the polls as Zelaya urges boycott |
| 2009-11-30 |
| Hondurans voted for a new president today in a controversial election that coup leaders hope will draw a line under the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya. The de facto government pushed for a high turnout to try to legitimise the poll and end a crisis that has polarised and isolated one of Latin America's poorest countries. Queues formed early in morning sunshine at polling stations in the capital, Tegucigalpa, but it was unclear if most voters would join what the authorities and pro-coup media dubbed a "fiesta electoral". Thirty thousand soldiers, police and reservists mobilised to oversee the vote and deter pro-Zelaya protests. Home-made explosives have damaged several polling centres in recent days but no serious injuries were reported. Zelaya, who was seized and exiled by soldiers on 28 June, said the poll should be delayed until democracy was restored. He urged a boycott. "Abstention will defeat the dictatorship," he told Radio Globo from the Brazilian embassy, his refuge since sneaking back into the country in September. "The elections will be a failure." Congress, the army, the supreme court and Zelaya's own party toppled him because of his deepening alliance with Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez. They accused the logger turned politician of plotting to extend his rule, a charge he denied. Neither Zelaya nor Roberto Micheletti, the de facto president who replaced him, were on the ballot for today's vote. The two main candidates were Porfirio Lobo and Elvin Santos, wealthy businessmen from the ruling elite. Five months of political and economic convulsions have flushed away aid and investment, made the country an international pariah and left Hondurans weary and anxious. "We can't go on like this," said Reina Metia, 73, a seamstress, on her way to vote on Avenida Guanacaste, a block from the heavily guarded Brazilian embassy. "Mel was a good president," she said, referring to Zelaya by his nickname, "but now we need to move on." |
| Posted by:Fred |