Porfirio Lobo wins Honduran presidential election official totals after nearly half the votes counted (3rd Roundup)

Nov 30, 2009, 9:48 GMT

   Tegucigalpa - Porfirio Lobo of the conservative National Party won Sunday's presidential election in Honduras with 52.3 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary official results.

   Lobo bested Elvin Santos of the Liberal Party, who polled 35.8 per cent, in the preliminary count. The electoral tribunal said 61.3 per cent of registered voters cast ballots, compared to 56 per cent in the 2005 presidential election.

   'On Monday, I will take the first steps so that we may all sit down to a grand dialogue that includes all sectors, to begin what all of us Hondurans wish for - a national plan that comes from consensus,' Lobo said.

   Santos conceded defeat and offered to play the role of 'loyal opposition' during the next government.

   The voters had spoken 'in free and sovereign elections,' Santos said. 'Porfirio Lobo is the president-elect and there is nothing else to do but to accept that mandate.'

   Three minor candidates shared the remainder of the votes.

   Former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup on June 28, had called on people to boycott the election.

   'Abstention is the product of a rejection of the coup, and of the decision by the people not to support a process that they do not regard as legitimate,' he said.

   But the turnout was higher than when he was elected five years before, and his rivals celebrated the election as historic.

   'The day has shown that Hondurans want to live in democracy and freedom. Other countries have to understand that,' said interim president Roberto Micheletti, who bucked international pressure to restore Zelaya to office before the elections.

   For now, only a few countries - including the United States and Panama - have said they will recognize the outcome of the election. Most Latin American countries reject the election altogether, while a few others in the region including Mexico, plus the European Union, were reserving judgement.

   'We commend the Honduran people for peacefully exercising their democratic right to select their leaders in an electoral process that began over a year ago, well before the June 28 coup d'etat,' the US State Department said. 

   'This shows that given the opportunity to express themselves, the Honduran people have viewed the election as an important part of the solution to the political crisis in their country,' spokesman Ian Kelly said.

   Polls closed at 2300 GMT, after electoral authorities extended voting for an hour due to an allegedly large turnout.

   Honduran media reported that police dispersed supporters of Zelaya who were demonstrating against the voting in San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city. There was no official confirmation of the violence.

   '(Police) are throwing tear gas and hitting people who are taking part in the demonstration, where there are also children,' one reporter at the rally told Radio Globo.

   Those were the first reports of violence on election day, with relative calm in the capital Tegucigalpa.

   Several non-governmental organizations including Amnesty International denounced arbitrary arrests and the use of excessive force by police. One Spanish reporter was said to have been arrested for illegally getting involved in Honduran politics.

   The Committee of Families of Missing Detainees in Honduras on Sunday denounced the arrests of close to 30 people over the previous 24 hours.

   Honduran authorities expected some 3,000 foreign election observers, but there were none from key international bodies including the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations, which continued to demand Zelaya's reinstatement.

   The ousted president secretly returned to Tegucigalpa in late September and has remained in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital since then.

   The election had been scheduled before the coup and was at the heart of the original crisis.

   Hondurans were voting for president, National Congress and local government offices. Before his ouster, Zelaya had sought to add a referendum to the ballot for a reform of the constitution.

   Critics saw that as an attempt by Zelaya to take power from Congress and to change the constitution so he could return to power quickly after his mandate ended on January 27.