Honduras top court rejects annulling vote results

Honduras' Supreme Court Tuesday rejected an appeal to overturn last month's presidential election results, which the leftist Libre party claimed was stolen by fraud. "The appeal is not admitted," the president of the top court told reporters, without elaborating. The court is expected to issue a full report after the Christmas holiday. Libre party leader, ex-president Manuel Zelaya, told AFP his party would accept what he called the "questionable and nontransparent" presidential results after the supreme court ruling. He had submitted documents formally requesting an annulment of the November 24 vote earlier this month. His wife, Libre candidate Xiomara Castro, officially lost to conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez, 29 percent against 37 percent, but she described the results as a "disgusting monstrosity." Zelaya had told AFP his appeal provided proof of "clear" voter fraud and he claimed that officials at 2,800 voting stations conspired to throw the election for Hernandez. The leftist leader was deposed at gunpoint in a June 2009 coup after he aligned Honduras with the leftist governments of Cubaand Venezuela. The new president is scheduled to take office on January 27. The winner will run a country of 8.5 million people with 71 percent of the population living in poverty and a soaring homicide rate of 20 murders per day, one of the deadliest in the world.