Hondurans to elect new president after June coup

Hondurans vote for a new president on Sunday in the latest chapter of a months-long political standoff triggered by a coup that has divided the United States from Latin American powers Brazil and Argentina.

Neither president Manuel Zelaya nor arch-rival Roberto Micheletti, installed as interim president by Congress after Zelaya's overthrow in June, is in the race.

That leaves the door open for someone else to take Honduras beyond the gridlock that has crippled the Central American nation for five months and cut off international aid.

But doubts remain over whether the world will recognise the vote because it is being run by the coup leaders and could end any hope of Zelaya returning to power.

Zelaya, camped out in the Brazilian Embassy since September when he sneaked back to Honduras from exile, says the vote is illegitimate and is telling supporters to stay home.

Soldiers grabbed the leftist from his home before dawn on June 28 and threw him out of the country, starting Central America's biggest political crisis since the end of the Cold War.

The US State department says Sunday's election is "a democratic way forward for the Honduran people" after talks to find a negotiated solution collapsed over the question of reinstating Zelaya.

The US position splits president Barack Obama from some Latin American leaders who say an election organized by Micheletti's de facto government is invalid and would amount to a victory for the coup leaders.

Obama wants to improve ties with the region — still haunted by memories of US-backed military governments in the late 20th century — but risks isolating himself from Brazil and Argentina, which reject the election.

The two leading presidential candidates hail from Honduras' ruling elite and have tried to avoid talking about the crisis, trying to convince Hondurans that the elections will let the country move on.

"We have to leave the differences and conflicts that divide us behind," front-runner Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo from the conservative opposition National Party said on Saturday.

Lobo says that if he wins, he will plead with foreign leaders to restore funding and seek a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund, after foreign donors slashed aid to impoverished Honduras after the coup.

In an October poll by CID-Gallup, Lobo was 16 points ahead of his closest rival, Elvin Santos from Zelaya's and Micheletti's Liberal Party.