Around the World: Honduras

Presidential vote starts

Hondurans went to the polls yesterday to select a new president whose first challenge will be defending his legitimacy to the world and his people, and ending a five-month-long crisis caused by Central America's first coup in more than 20 years.

Porfirio Lobo and Elvin Santos, two prosperous businessmen from the political old-guard, are the front-runners in the election. However, Manuel Zelaya, the left-leaning president ousted in a June 28 coup, is urging Hondurans to boycott the vote, hoping overwhelming abstention will discredit the election and persuade the international community not to recognize the next government.

(China Daily 11/30/2009 page8)