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Two-in-Five Hondurans Justify Zelaya’s Ouster
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many people in Hondurans say the coup d’ état against Manuel Zelaya was well deserved, according to a poll by CID-Gallup published in La Prensa. 41 per cent of respondents say the president’s ouster was justified, while 28 per cent disagree.
In November 2005, Zelaya—candidate of the Liberal Party (PL)—won the presidential election with 49.9 per cent of all cast ballots, defeating National Party (PN) nominee Porfirio Lobo Sosa. Less than 69,000 votes separated the two contenders. Zelaya took office in January 2006.
On Jun. 28, Zelaya was forced out of the country by a group of military officers and flown to Costa Rica. Congress leader Roberto Micheletti, also a Liberal, was appointed interim president that same day.
Zelaya had ordered a referendum seeking to enact a new constitution that would scrap presidential term limits, angering political opponents and allies alike, as well as the country’s Constitutional Court, which had previously ruled that the referendum was illegal.
Zelaya has not been allowed to return to Honduras since the coup. World leaders have unanimously condemned the ouster of a democratically elected president.
On Jul. 9, Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, leader of Honudars’s joint chiefs of staff, declared: "The outside world sees us as bad guys but inside the country we are the ones who saved democracy. (…) The best judge we will have is history."
Polling Data
Do you think the ouster of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was justified or unjustified?
|
Justified |
41% |
|
Unjustified |
28% |
|
Not sure / Refused |
31% |
Source: CID-Gallup / La Prensa
Methodology: Interviews to 1,204 Honduran adults, conducted from Jun. 30 to Jul. 4, 2009. Margin of error is 2.8 per cent.