Tegucigalpa - Porfirio Lobo of the conservative National Party was leading in Sunday's disputed presidential election in Honduras, according to preliminary official results. With 9 per cent of the vote counted, Lobo, a businessman, had close to 56 per cent of the vote compared to closest rival Elvin Santos' 38 per cent, according to the first results made public late Sunday by Honduras' Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Three minor candidates shared the remainder of the votes.
There was no immediate data on the turnout, which was regarded as crucial for the legitimacy of the results.
Ousted president Manuel Zelaya had called on people to boycott the vote. He said that more than 56 per cent of registered voters had abstained Sunday - compared to 44.6 per cent in the 2005 vote in which he himself was elected.
"Abstention is the product of a rejection of the coup, and of the decision by the people not to support a process that they do not regard as legitimate," he said.
Zelaya's rivals, however, celebrated the election as historic.
"The day has shown that Hondurans want to live in democracy and freedom. Other countries have to understand that," said interim president Roberto Micheletti, who like Zelaya belongs to the Liberal Party.
Polls closed at 2300 GMT, after electoral authorities extended voting for an hour due to an allegedly large turnout.
Honduran media reported that police dispersed supporters of Zelaya who were demonstrating against the voting in San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city. There was no official confirmation of the violence.
"(Police) are throwing tear gas and hitting people who are taking part in the demonstration, where there are also children," one reporter at the rally told Radio Globo.
Those were the first reports of violence on election day, with relative calm in the capital Tegucigalpa.
Several non-governmental organizations including Amnesty International denounced arbitrary arrests and the use of excessive force by police. One Spanish reporter was said to have been arrested for illegally getting involved in Honduran politics.
The Committee of Families of Missing Detainees in Honduras on Sunday denounced the arrests of close to 30 people over the previous 24 hours.
While Zelaya urged people to boycott the vote, his opponents saw it as a chance for the country to overcome the ongoing political crisis, exacerbated when Zelaya was seized by the military on June 28 and expelled from the country.
For now, only a few countries - including the United States and Panama - have said they will recognize the outcome of the election. Most Latin American countries reject the election altogether, while a few others in the region - including Mexico - plus the European Union want to wait until Hondurans vote.
Honduran authorities expected some 3,000 foreign election observers, but there were none from key international bodies including the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations, which continue to demand Zelaya's reinstatement.
The ousted president secretly returned to Tegucigalpa in late September and has remained in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital since then.
About 30,000 police and military, plus 10,000 reservists, were mobilized for the election.
The election had been scheduled before the coup and was at the heart of the original crisis.
Hondurans were voting for president, National Congress and local government offices. Before his ouster, Zelaya had sought to add a referendum to the ballot for a reform of the constitution.
Critics saw this as an attempt by Zelaya to take power from Congress and to change the constitution so he could return to power quickly after his mandate ends on January 27.
