Although the international community has warned it will not recognise the results of the November elections in Honduras, the de facto government in power since the June 28 military coup that overthrew elected President Manuel Zelaya said the vote would go ahead.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who mediated the unsuccessful talks between ousted Zelaya and the coup government, said the elections scheduled for November 29 could be "a solution to the crisis" resulting from Zelaya's overthrow. Continued mass resistance from the poor demanding Zelaya's return has brought the country largely to a halt.
But many within and outside Honduras say the results of the elections would only be valid if the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti accepts the reinstatement of Zelaya as president to complete his term, which ends in January.
Eulogio Chavez, a leader of the powerful FOMH teachers' union, told InterPress Service that his union would "boycott the general elections and refuse to recognise the results because they are being held under a de facto government that has usurped power".
Chavez said the National Resistance Front Against the Coup d'Etat (FNRG), which his union belongs to, is opposed to the elections and in favour of Zelaya's suggestion to elect a constituent assembly to redraft the constitution. This is part of a push to strengthen democracy in the impoverished Central American nation of seven million people.
Rhe FNRG approved the call for a constituent assembly at a national assembly on September 6.
Zelaya was overthrown after weeks of political arm-wrestling over his plans to hold a non-binding popular vote on constitutional reform on June 28.
But analysts say he was ousted because some of his social policies and his alignment with more radical left-wing leaders in Latin America, like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, put him at loggerheads with the country's conservative elites, including his own party.
Presidential candidates Cesar Ham, of the left-wing Democratic Unification Party, and Carlos H. Reyes, an independent trade unionist, said they would only take part in the elections if the country's constitutional order was restored — in other words, if Zelaya was reinstated.
The FNRG includes the FOMH, representing more than 50,000 teachers, the country's three central unions, and the Popular Bloc, which groups more than 10 trade unions representing more than 30,000 public employees.
Micheletti, on the other hand, has the support of the armed forces, police, more than 100 of the 128 national legislators, the 15 Supreme Court magistrates, Attorney-General Luis Rubi and conservative civil society organisations.
After meeting last week with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other US officials, Zelaya warned that time was running out and if a political solution was not found soon, Honduras would fall into anarchy and chaos.
After refusing to cut off aid to the coup regime for two months, Washington has now cut off non-humanitarian aid and said it would not recognise the results of the November 29 elections under the current circumstances.
The governments of Latin America have also said they will not recognise the elections, as has Organisation of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza and other figures in the international community.
The Honduran Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), nevertheless, insisted the elections "are irreversible and are the only solution to the crisis".
Micheletti not only refused to consider Zelaya's return, but said if he did return to Honduras he will immediately be arrested and accused of "abuse of power" and corruption.
The TSE has launched a campaign urging Hondurans to come out en masse and vote in November, arguing that the elections will be safe, transparent and respectful of voters.
TSE magistrate Enrique Ortez told IPS that measures will be taken "to guarantee the electoral process and reduce fraud and political manipulation to a minimum".
Since September 1, the country's two traditional parties, the centre-right Liberal Party and the right-wing National Party, have been campaigning in the media and holding election rallies.
The FNRG, in the meantime, has continued to hold street protests in the capital and other cities, demonstrating against the coup and the election campaign.
[Abridged from an InterPress Service report. Reprinted from Upsidedownworld.org.]