Fox News reports:
Conservative rancher Porfirio Lobo won Honduras’ presidential elections Sunday in voting that many Hondurans hope will end a crippling crisis and others fear will whitewash the overthrow of a leftist leader in a June coup.
Preliminary official results showed the opposition National Party candidate with 56 percent support with more than 60 percent of the vote tally sheets counted. His main rival, Elvin Santos of the ruling Liberal Party, conceded defeat, saying it is time for “unity, the only path to confront the future and ensure the victory of all Hondurans.”
Perhaps more importantly, election officials said more than 60 percent of registered voters cast ballots — a victory for interim leaders who hoped a large turnout would bolster the vote’s legitimacy in the eyes of the world.
Good for them. The United States has promised to recognize the results. We’ll see if President Obama keeps that promise.
UPDATE: More on the election here. And this part is interesting:
Mr. Zelaya had already showed his hand when he organized a mob to try to carry out a June 28 popular referendum so that he could cancel the elections and remain in office. That was unlawful, and he was arrested by order of the Supreme Court and later removed from power by Congress for violating the constitution.
It is less well-known that as president, according to an electoral-council official I interviewed in Tegucigalpa two weeks ago, Mr. Zelaya had refused to transfer the budgeted funds—as required by law—to the council for its preparatory work. In other words, he didn’t want a free election.
Mr. Chávez didn’t want one either. During the Zelaya government the country had become a member of Mr. Chávez’s Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which includes Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. If power changed hands, Honduran membership would be at risk.
Last week a government official told me that Honduran intelligence has learned that Mr. Zelaya had made preparations to welcome all the ALBA presidents to the country the night of his planned June referendum. Food for a 10,000-strong blowout celebration, the official added, was on order.
(Via Instapundit.)
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