Opposition leader ahead in Honduras presidential election

Opposition leader ahead in Honduras presidential election

Updated at: 1138 PST, Monday, November 30, 2009 TEGUCIGALPA: Honduran opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo took a clear early lead in a presidential election on Sunday. Mr. Lobo with more than 55 per cent of Sunday’s vote, well ahead of main rival Elvin Santos of the ruling Liberal party. U.S. hoped that the election could calm a five-month crisis, which the Central America country has suffered since the army overthrew leftist Manuel Zelaya in June and flew him into exile. Mr. Lobo is seen as more able than Mr. Santos to lead Honduras out of political gridlock and diplomatic isolation. Soldiers grabbed Mr. Zelaya from his home on June 28 and threw him out of the country, sparking Central America’s biggest political crisis since the end of the cold war. Mr Lobo vowed on Sunday to end Honduras’s isolation from countries such as Brazil and international organisations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), which have frozen Honduras out in retaliation for the coup.