Has a successful presidential election in Honduras helped to legitimise a military coup?

THE members of a conservative coalition behind the toppling of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras, on June 28th, have since been betting that presidential elections would serve to legitimise their military coup. Despite intense pressure from abroad, the de facto regime that has been running the country in recent months was convinced that foreign leaders would in the end refuse to punish a successor government for earlier sins. The test came on Sunday November 29th with the completion of a relatively peaceful vote, which the centre-right candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa won comfortably. To the great chagrin of observers across the hemisphere, it seems the result will be respected and the strategy of the coup-plotters will be rewarded.

Local human-rights groups insist that a free and fair election was impossible in the current situation. They point to a series of abuses ahead of the vote: intermittent suspension of anti-coup media outlets, suppression of large opposition rallies and the declaration of a state of siege shortly before the polls opened. Moreover, the self-described “resistance” movement appeared to have the de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, in a bind. By calling for massive protests on election day, they would either discourage many prospective voters from turning out, or force him to disperse them by force in front of international observers. …