BUENOS AIRES, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - Ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya has called on the Honduran people to say "no" to the "dictatorship" by boycotting the elections being held in the country.
"The people will tell "no" to the dictatorship," Zelaya told the TeleSur channel on Sunday, adding "I am sure that more than a half of the voters will not come to polling stations."
The ousted Honduran president described the election as "farce and fraud."
"Hundreds of candidates refused to take part in this election, such authoritative organizations as the United Nations and the Organization of American States have not send their observers [to monitor the election]," he said, adding "Hondurans will not support it [the fraud]."
Some 2.8 million Hondurans of the 4.6 million eligible for voting are expected to take part in Sunday's polls. Turnout was light early on Sunday at some polling stations in poor regions, but voters lined up in middle-class areas.
Zelaya supporters have openly vowed to disrupt the vote because the leading candidates, Porfirio Lobo and Elvin Santos, belong to the two main parties that voted overwhelmingly in Congress to support Zelaya's ouster.
The de facto government maintains that the elections are the only way to overcome the political crisis. Neither the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, nor the interim leader, Roberto Micheletti, take part.
Some 3,000 Honduran and over 300 international observers are monitoring the polls.
Along with the president, the voters also choose three vice presidents, 128 lawmakers and 298 mayors.
Zelaya also told TeleSur the National Congress is not competent to consider his reinstatement.
"The Congress, which supported the coup, has no authority [to take a decision] concerning my reinstatement. All the more after holding the election. Under such conditions, I will not accept it [the reinstatement]. Dignity is not for sale," Zelaya said.
The Congress is expected to consider the issue during its plenary session scheduled for December 2.
Zelaya was bundled out of Honduras on June 28 by the military, acting on instructions from the Supreme Court and parliament, over efforts to seek an unconstitutional second presidential term.
He was flown to Costa Rica, and his place was taken by Micheletti, the parliamentary speaker.
The ousted president secretly returned to the country on September 21 and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy.
