Exit Poll Shows Ruling-Party Candidate Ahead in Honduras

A 47-year-old newspaper owner, Carlos Flores, appeared to have won Sunday’s presidential election here, according to an exit poll, defeating Nora Gunera de Melgar, widow of a former military president.

An exit poll broadcast by the national Televicentro network showed Flores with a 55%-40% advantage in Tegucigalpa, the capital, and a 60%-35% lead in the country’s second-largest city, San Pedro Sula.

Televicentro broadcast the poll at 5 p.m. after polls closed nationwide. It gave no margin of error, but its exit poll was in line with preelection polls.

Televicentro said Flores’ ruling Liberal Party also had a strong lead in congressional races, though the opposition National Party’s Carlos Castellanos appeared to have won the mayoral race in the capital.

When the new president takes office Jan. 27, it will be the fifth consecutive transfer of power between civilians--a feat in Central America, where coups and military dictatorships have been common.

In all, 2.9 million Hondurans were registered to vote in Sunday’s election for president, 128 members of the one-house Congress and 297 mayors--all the elected officials in Honduras.