Neccessarily a short diary, if it's been done already today my apologies. Our friends to the south in Honduras have had a peaceful election. 61% of enrolled voters cast ballots–an increase from the 2005 presidential election (which Zelaya won with 49.9%), and in which 46% of enrolled voters had participated.
In the 2001 election, participation was 64%; in 1997 it was 72%, and in 1993 it was 65%.
Lobo, an opponent of ousted President Manuel Zelaya in 2005, remained neutral in the Zelaya ouster. Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela said they would not recognise the vote
WSJ:
A conservative rancher named Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo took the Honduran presidency in elections Sunday, five months after the country’s last elected president was forced out of the country at gunpoint. Now Hondurans must wait to see if the international community, which has been divided over the crisis, accepts the winner as legitimate.
The results gave Mr. Lobo 56% of the vote, well ahead of Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos at 38%, confirming voters’ expected punishment of the Liberals — party of both the deposed president and the interim government that ousted him.
While the small Central American nation is expected to get crucial support from the U.S., it will likely continue to face opposition from regional heavyweights such as Brazil and Argentina. The U.S., in agreeing to accept the winner, is now in a delicate position — with Brazil, for example, which is housing exiled leader Manuel Zelaya in its Honduran embassy and recognizes him as president.