Manuel Zelaya, Roberto Micheletti Duel For Honduras

Manuel Zelaya, Roberto Micheletti Duel For Honduras

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/29/manuel-zelaya-roberto-mic_n_222126.html

Zelaya: Disputed Honduran poll to go on

According to a 27 June 2009 article on UPI.com, "Zelaya: Disputed Honduran poll to go on":

Honduran leader Jose Manuel Zelaya says a controversial referendum on extending the term of his presidency will proceed as planned.

Zelaya said Friday that despite mounting opposition from the country's armed forces and supreme court, Sunday's referendum asking voters to start a process to allow him to run for another term would go on as planned, CNN Espanol reported.

"There is no reason to be alarmed," Zelaya said. But, he added, "the peril is not over -- it's latent."

The leftist Zelaya, elected in 2005, is facing opposition from Honduras's other branches of government in his effort to stage a poll asking voters to place a measure on November's ballot setting up a constitutional assembly that could modify the national charter allowing the president to run for another term. Current law says Zelaya, whose four-year term ends in January, cannot run for re-election.

CNN said Zelaya is holding firm on his referendum plans despite the opposition, asserting Honduran law "says the citizens can ask the powers of the state to be consulted. That poll has no binding character."