The national election in Honduras was held yesterday, and it appears that the new president is Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo from the National Party. This isn't much of a surprise; pretty much all of the people I've talked to expected Pepe to win, and he had been leading the Liberal Party candidate, Elvin Santos, by large margins in recent polls. Currently, La Prensa gives Pepe 57% of the vote to Elvin's 33% (as a note, people here do tend to call their politicians by their first names). Additionally, ousted president Mel Zelaya, from the Liberal Party, called for his supporters to boycott the election. So, more important questions concerning the legitimacy of the election and its (in)ability to move the country beyond the political crisis surrounding the coup will be debated in the upcoming days and weeks as voter turnout and null vote (blank ballots submitted in protest) numbers are refined and contested.
Gregory Weeks, a political science professor and UNC Charlotte, provides a summary of the political situation and preview of the election here.
Today's NY Times article is here.
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