Manuel Zelaya, a wealthy landowner who promised to battle government corruption and push for life sentences for violent criminals, was declared Honduras’ president-elect Monday.
His opponent from the ruling party, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, refused to concede, saying the votes were not yet fully counted.
Supreme Electoral Tribunal President Aristides Mejia declared Zelaya the winner of Sunday’s vote, but officials said final results would not be available until late Monday at the earliest.
The tribunal said Sunday night that Zelaya had 50.8 percent of the vote to 45.2 percent for Lobo Sosa of the governing National Party.
National Party President Gilberto Goldstein said Monday that too few votes had been tallied to establish a winner and that his party would not accept the results until all the votes were counted. He accused Mejia of declaring Zelaya the winner prematurely.
