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Lobo Sosa refuses to concede in Honduran elections

Honduras' governing party accused an electoral official of prematurely declaring wealthy landowner Manuel Zelaya the winner of elections, and the outgoing president urged the candidates to maintain calm as the final results are tallied.

But Supreme Electoral Tribunal President Aristides Mejia stuck by his announcement that the victor in Sunday's voting was Zelaya, an opposition candidate who has promised to fight corruption and push for life sentences for violent criminals in this poor Central American nation plagued by gang violence.

Zelaya's supporters flooded the streets of the capital on Monday, waving the Liberal Party's red-and-white flag, flashing their cars' headlights and blowing horns to celebrate victory.

Supporters of rival National Party candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa, however, refused to concede defeat, and tribunal members said official results would not be available until yesterday at the earliest.

Late Monday, tribunal representative Jacobo Hernandez, of the National Party, rejected Mejia's declaration in favor of Zelaya, calling it "absurd."

"We haven't released official results," he said.

The tribunal said on Sunday night that Zelaya had 50.8 percent of the vote to 45.2 percent for Lobo Sosa, but it did not say on what proportion of the vote tally this projection was based.

National Party President Gilberto Goldstein said too few votes had been tallied to establish a winner and that his party would not accept the election results until all the votes were counted.

He accused Mejia of declaring Zelaya the winner prematurely.

Mejia, who is a member of Zelaya's Liberal Party, urged Lobo Sosa to concede defeat.

Lobo Sosa "should admit that there is a winner ... and that winner is President-elect Manuel Zelaya," Mejia told Channel 5.

Lobo Sosa assured hundreds of his supporters at the National Party headquarters on Monday night that he had not given up.

In a news release on Monday evening, outgoing President Ricardo Maduro, of the National Party, urged both candidates and the voters to "maintain calm, peace and order ... while the results of yesterday's vote are determined officially."

The release noted that the election was close and urged both parties to "be prudent when it comes to making statements, and wait for the results of all the balloting."
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