Honduras opposition candidate Mel Zelaya wins presidential election
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-29 10:48

A wealthy landowner who has promised to fight government corruption and push for life sentences for violent criminals was declared the winner of Honduras' presidential election, but his ruling party opponent refused to concede defeat.

Election officials said Sunday that preliminary results indicated a voting tendency in favor of Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, widely recognized for his thick black mustache, cowboy boots and large white Stetson. And on Monday, Supreme Electoral Tribunal President Aristides Mejia declared him the winner in a television interview.

But officials said final results of the contest between Zelaya and his rival, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa, of the governing National Party, would not be released until late Monday at the earliest.

National Party President Gilberto Goldstein said Monday that too few votes had been tallied to establish a winner and that his party would not accept the election results "until every one of the votes of every citizen is counted."

He accused Mejia of declaring Zelaya the winner based on early results and insisted Lobo Sosa was ahead.

Mejia, however, said he was confident in his projection and urged Lobo Sosa to concede defeat.

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

"I'm going to defend the right of my people to have their votes counted," he shouted, shaking his fist in the air as supporters chanted, "Let's count the votes!" and "Pepe! Pepe!"

Supporters wait for a press conference of Liberal Party presidential candidate Manuel Zelaya, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Monday Nov. 28, 2005. [AP]

He added that party members will "demand a correct vote count from the tribunal."

In a news release 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 said the election was "very close ... with a very tight margin of votes," and that as a result representatives of both parties "should be prudent when it comes to making statements, and wait for the results of all the balloting."

The president met with each of the candidates Monday morning, the release said.

Zelaya's supporters and the candidate himself were having none of it. Jubilant supporters flooded the streets of the capital Sunday night and Monday, waving the Liberal Party's red-and-white flag, flashing their cars' headlights and blowing horns to celebrate what they called a certain victory.

Zelaya said Monday he already was forming work committees, preparing official visits to other countries and setting up meetings with business groups and social organizations.

"The decision the people made requires that we get to work now for Honduras, leave behind the campaign and start meeting with the people," he said at a news conference in his home. "This country urgently needs solutions, and we can't lock ourselves away until January. We have to begin now."

Salvadoran President Tony Saca's office said he planned to meet with Zelaya on Tuesday in El Salvador.

Also Monday, Maduro denied a news report that the army was on alert because of the elections' uncertainty.

"There is absolutely nothing of the kind," he told a news conference.

Zelaya, a tall, wealthy agricultural landowner, has railed against alleged government corruption and said he supports life sentences for violent criminals who are "beyond rehabilitation" in this nation plagued by gang violence.

Under a "citizens' power" plan to combat corruption, Zelaya promised to pass a transparency law and implement a civil assembly to monitor the government.

He also has promised to create 400,000 jobs in four years in Honduras, which has poverty and unemployment rates of 71 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

Lobo Sosa, also a wealthy agricultural landowner and the current president of Congress, pledged to create 600,000 jobs and implement the death penalty in order to achieve "a peaceful country, without criminals."

Traditionally, the results of national elections in Honduras are tallied rapidly by computer and released the same day of the vote.

On Sunday, however, election officials experienced technical problems that delayed final results, Mejia said.

The Organization of American States said Sunday that despite delays and scattered complaints of irregularities, the difficulties "did not alter the process as a whole."

Sunday's balloting was the seventh consecutive democratic election for this country, which abandoned more than two decades of military rule in 1981. Maduro was prohibited by law from seeking re-election and leaves office January 27.