Ruling party wins Honduran presidential race

Honduran voters have given the ruling National Party four more years in the presidency even though crime worsened and poverty and unemployment increased in this poor nation under outgoing President Porfirio Lobo.
Juan Orlando Hernandez, 45, the party's candidate who campaigned on a law-and-order platform, has all but won the hotly contested presidential race, electoral authorities said late Monday in declaring his lead "irreversible."
Even before the announcement, his main competitor, Xiomara Castro, had challenged the official returns and claimed victory for herself. Her husband, former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a 2009 coup, said they wouldn't accept the results.

With about 68 per cent of the votes counted from Sunday's election, Hernandez had 34 per cent to 29 per cent for Castro in an eight-candidate field.
"It's not the final result, but it's an irreversible trend," tribunal spokeswoman Lourdes Rosales said.
Hernandez and Castro had entered the election neck-and-neck in opinion polls, and there were fears a disputed vote could bring protests and more instability.

International observers, including US Ambassador Lisa Kubiske, had congratulated Hondurans on a peaceful vote with high turnout and said the vote and the count appeared to clean.
Hernandez will likely face a divided Congress, whose 128 members were also elected Sunday. As a result, the political situation is unlikely to change dramatically in this failing state of 8.5 million people, which is home to the world's highest homicide rate.

It has been a focal point for US drug enforcement efforts as the transit point for much of the South American cocaine heading to the US.
More than half of the country lives in poverty, and the number working for less than the minimum wage of USD 350 a month has grown from 28 per cent in 2008 to 43 per cent today.