Monday, November 28, 2005

Opposition WINS Honduras Election

Opposition WINS Honduras Election

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/11/28/honduras.ap/index.html

Monday, November 28, 2005; Posted: 8:37 a.m. EST (13:37 GMT)

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Supporters rally in front of a banner for Liberal Party presidential candidate Manuel Zelaya on Friday.  

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- Opposition Liberal Party candidate Mel Zelaya has won Honduras' presidential elections, the country's top election official said early Monday.

"Hondurans have a president-elect ... and it is Zelaya," said Aristides Mejia, president of the Central American nation's election institute, told Honduran television Channel 5.

Mejia did not give vote figures, however, and added that he had ordered a nationwide recount. The institute late Sunday night said the tendency nationwide favored Zelaya, with 50.8 percent of the vote to 45.2 percent for Porfirio Lobo Sosa of the governing National Party.

But officials did not reveal how much of the vote had been counted and have still not released any official numbers, which were not expected until later Monday or Tuesday.

Lobo Sosa had not conceded defeat.

Zelaya declared himself the winner late Sunday and his supporters flooded into the streets of the capital waving the Liberal Party's flag, flashing car lights and blowing horns to celebrate what they called a certain victory.

"Honduras has today a new light of hope," Zelaya said at a news conference. "Now comes an era of transparency and justice."

But in an interview with local media, Lobo Sosa declined to concede defeat. "We have results that don't coincide with those of the Liberal Party. ... It is a close race and it will be a long night of counting votes."

A national exit poll Sunday also gave Zelaya a significant lead.

The poll released by Honduran television stations HRN and Channel 5 showed Zelaya with 50.6 percent of the vote to 44.3 percent for Lobo Sosa. The survey was based on interviews with 120,000 voters and was conducted in conjunction with the private firm Management Engineering.

Vowing to eliminate widespread government corruption, Zelaya had clashed on law-enforcement issues with the ruling Lobo Sosa, who promised to wipe out violent crime with the help of the death penalty.

The country's nearly 4 million voters also cast ballots for a vice president, 128 congressional representatives, 298 mayors and 2,000 city councilors. Sunday's vote is the seventh consecutive democratic election of this Central American nation since 1981, when it abandoned more than two decades of military rule.

Sunday's balloting took place under the eyes of more than 16,000 soldiers and police officers, as well as 6,000 local observers and 114 election monitors from 14 countries. There were no major irregularities or incidents.

Zelaya, a former congressman and bank director, insists the shortest road to prosperity for a country with a 70 percent poverty rate is to eliminate corruption, which he claims is rife in the government and the private sector.

He has proposed a transparency law and a civil assembly to monitor the government. He also promised to support life imprisonment for hard-core criminals in a country contending with the proliferation of ruthless youth gangs.

Honduran law does not allow life imprisonment, though judges have imposed sentences of up to 60 years for grave crimes.

Lobo Sosa, as congressional president, helped current President Ricardo Maduro push through laws to criminalize gang membership. Maduro is not allowed by law to run for re-election.

Lobo Sosa proposed instituting the death penalty for "abominable crimes" including sexual assault, kidnapping and murder. He says many of those crimes are committed by gangs.

Both Lobo Sosa and Zelaya are wealthy agricultural landowners who support a free-trade agreement with the United States. Each has also pledged to develop tourism, increase access to education, expand agricultural production and support small businesses.

Three other candidates from smaller parties also were running for president, but they were expected to win only a small fraction of the vote. The winner will assume office on Jan. 27 for a term of four years.
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