Tegucigalpa, Honduras About 30,000 police officers and soldiers were set to be deployed across Honduras on Sunday for a presidential election that is being viewed in starkly different terms inside the country.Those who support ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who was forced from office in a coup in June, are urging citizens to stay home.They say that participating in the polls is tantamount to legitimizing the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, who replaced Zelaya.The current government, on the other hand, sees the election as a means to end months of international isolation. The coup, widely condemned worldwide, cut off foreign aid to the Central American nation and dealt a blow to its economy.Micheletti’s administration is hoping the international community will recognize whoever emerges the winner of the race.The United States has already said that it will, adding that elections will reset the clock. But Argentina and Brazil have said they will not.
“I believe that tomorrow a lack of voter participation and rejection of dictatorship will prevail,” Zelaya said Saturday. “It will speak by itself. Do not go with the results given by the dictator Micheletti.”Fearing violence, police and military have stockpiled 10,000 tear gas canisters and other crowd-control equipment.This, in turn, has alarmed many residents, “triggering fears of an increased risk of excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces around the presidential elections,” said the human rights group Amnesty International.The political crisis started June 28, when a military-backed coup removed Zelaya from power, shuttling him off in his pajamas to nearby Costa Rica. A few hours later, Congress swore in Micheletti, the legislature’s president, as Zelaya’s replacement.
The United Nations, the Organization of American States, the European Union and most nations — including the United States — condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated immediately.Five months later, Zelaya is still not in power, holed up instead in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital. The ousted president sought refuge there after secretly returning to his country September 21.It appeared that a solution had been reached October 29, when Zelaya and Micheletti agreed to a deal brokered by the United States. The pact said Congress would vote on Zelaya’s return to power after consultation with the nation’s Supreme Court and other bodies. The vote was to have been held within a week but is now scheduled for next week, after the elections.
The Supreme Court ruled 14-1 this week that Zelaya cannot return to office without first facing trial on charges that he acted unconstitutionally when he tried to hold a vote that could have led to the lifting of presidential term limits. The Supreme Court had ruled that the vote was illegal and Congress had forbidden it.The coup came on the day the vote was to have been held.Micheletti stepped down temporarily this week to try to distance himself from Sunday’s elections. He said he will resume office Wednesday. The new president is scheduled to be sworn in January 27.In addition to the presidency, voters will cast ballots on Sunday for three vice presidents, 128 members of congress, and mayors and other municipal leaders throughout the nation
