Kuwait Times

Published Date: December 01, 2009

TEGUCIGALPA: Conservative Porfirio Lobo claimed victory in Honduras' controversial presidential election, vowing to move his fractured country forward from months of political stalemate after June's coup. "There's no time for more divisions," hopes to move past coup with election a beaming Lobo said late Sunday to crowds cheering his nickname "Pepe," after the polls.

Honduran voters have placed their hopes on the 61-year-old to find an exit to the five-month crisis which isolated the nation after the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya.

Lobo, a former president of congress and who studied business at the University of Miami, vowed to launch a national dialogue, form a unity government and woo back much-needed foreign investment.

The United States was quick to underline its support, with State Department spokesman Ian Kelly calling the elections "a necessary and important step forward." Peru, Panama and Costa Rica, which mediated first crisis talks, have already said they would support the elections.

But Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and other elected leftist governments in the region have said they will not recognize the result, alarmed it is allowing the coup to go unpunished.

At an Ibero-American summit in Portugal, Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said while his government did not recognise the elections "neither can we ignore them" and called for national reconciliation.

Speaking at the same venue, Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced what he called a "spurious government" and accused the US of supporting a dictatorship.

The division puts in danger President Barack Obama's attempts for a fresh start with Latin America after a painful history of US intervention, although analysts have suggested that more countries may come around to his position.

Provided turnout proved to be above 50 percent and there was no evidence of fraud, "my sense is that they'll come around to recognizing the elections," said Kevin Casas-Zamora, a Latin America expert from the Brookings Institution.

Officials said that 61.3 percent of 4.3 million voters had turned out.
Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since returning home in September, had urged Hondurans to boycott the vote.

He accused authorities of inflating the turnout, in comments to Radio Globo.
We are very surprised how this election has been inflated to turn it into a lie for Hondurans," the deposed president said.

Lobo led with 55.9 percent of the vote, electoral officials said late Sunday, after more than 60 percent of ballots were counted. Shortly afterwards, his main rival, Elvin Santos, who garnered around 38 percent of votes counted, admitted defeat.

Santos suffered from divisions in his Liberal Party, to which both Zelaya and his rival de facto leader Roberto Micheletti belong. Election officials and pro-Micheletti media dubbed the vote a "fiesta" and hailed calm voting across the Central American nation.

However, security forces in the northern city of San Pedro Sula fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of Zelaya supporters at a protest. Journalists and activists said dozens were detained and injured.

Rights groups complained of an environment of fear before the elections, and slammed a military crackdown on dissent, including several deaths and dozens of arrests after the coup. Scores of independent observers, including right-wing US groups, monitored the vote, after the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS) declined to assist.

Zelaya, a wealthy rancher, swung to the left and allied with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after taking office. Chavez on Sunday denounced the vote as an "electoral farce." It was as yet unclear who would hand over power to the new president. Congress is to vote Wednesday on Zelaya's brief reinstatement-before his term runs out in January, when Micheletti has said he will return to the de facto leadership. - AFP