Election morning

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - It's been a very slow day thus far, so I thought I'd take the time to make an update about my trip to the polls this morning.

I hitched a ride with Bloomberg reporter (and former Nica Times reporter) Eric Sabo this morning to several polling places not long after they opened around 7 a.m. Each had a handful of soldiers and police, but no overwhelming presence was visible anywhere in the streets. The city was dead this morning, as if it were any other Sunday. There's no sense that really anything is happening in Honduras unless you talk to some people in the modest crowds at the polls.

Those voting will tell you how important these elections are for democracy in Honduras. For some it's about their candidate, but for most it's about sending a message to the international community. There's no fear of violence, nor any real fear of fraud taking place. Without a doubt, there will be a lot of people who don't go to the polls, but it probably won't be significant enough for Zelaya's supporters to gain momentum on keeping the elections from being recognized. That's really their only hope at this point for having any say in Honduras' political future.

In other words, the only people who have anything at stake today in the elections themselves are the two main candidates for the presidency, Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos (from Zelaya and Micheletti's now very divided party) and National Party candidate Pepe Lobo, who barring a huge surprise should win today. Which one of them wins, in my opinion, really won't have more or less effect than the other on Honduras' future. It appears now there's more at stake on Dec. 2, when the congress votes on and likely rejects Zelaya's restitution.

At this point I really think the Resistance and the international community are out of options. The support of the United States was crucial in keeping the hope of Zelaya's restitution alive, and the Obama administration jumped the gun following the signing of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord in saying it would more than likely recognize the election results. Micheletti can pat himself on the back for signing that accord which gave the interim government ample loopholes to take advantage of. They were able to get Zelaya to agree to calling for a unity government that the interim government on its own got the right to decide and agreed to let the same congress that certified his ouster have the vote on his restitution without setting a deadline. That was crucial, because it let congress put the issue off until after the elections without drawing condemnation from the U.S., even though it was understood in theory that they would do it more promptly.

Polls close at 4 p.m. and I think the results may be known as early as 7 p.m., but that's probably optimistic. In the meantime I'll be here in the lobby of the Clarion Hotel with a few other journalists watching the local news and following the other blogs. Here's hoping Hondurans can find something to celebrate on an otherwise very uninspiring day in Central American politics.