Porfirio Lobo has claimed a solid win in the controversial first presidential election in Honduras since a June 28 coup — and vowed to form a national unity government.
“There’s no time for more divisions,” a beaming Lobo said late on Sunday to crowds cheering his nickname “Pepe,” after the polls.
Honduran voters have placed their hopes on the broad-grinned 61-year-old conservative to find an exit to the five-month crisis caused by the ouster of president Manuel Zelaya.
Lobo has promised to bring back foreign investment and to form a national unity government.
The US was quick to underline its support on Sunday, 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.
Lobo said on Sunday that other countries, including France, Poland, Colombia and Japan, had told him they were likely to follow.
Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and other elected leftist governments in the region, however, have said they will not recognize the result.
The division puts in danger US President Barack Obama’s attempts for a fresh start with Latin America. Analysts, however, have suggested that more countries may come around to the US 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.
Electoral officials said partial results showed 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. In comments to Radio Globo yesterday, he accused the authorities of inflating the turnout figures.
“We are very surprised how this election has been inflated to turn it into a lie for Hondurans,” Zelaya said.
Lobo led with 55.9 percent of the vote, electoral officials said late on 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.
Both pro-Micheletti media and election officials dubbed the vote a “fiesta” and hailed calm voting across the Central American nation after polling closed.
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 against the polls. Journalists and activists said dozens were detained and injured.
Scores of independent observers, including right-wing US groups, monitored the vote, after the UN and the Organization of American States declined to assist.
Meanwhile, in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would dispatch a congratulatory note to the winner of the election on behalf of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) once the official result from Telgucigalpa was confirmed.
Deputy ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said the government would recognize the result of any open and fair election and that the longstanding ties with Honduras will remain unchanged.
Lobo visited Taiwan in June 2005 when he was congressional speaker.
At the time he acknowleged his country’s commercial relations with Beijing, but said: “Honduras will not establish diplomatic relations with China.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU
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