Lobo wins disputed Honduras vote

But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva again condemned the election, saying that failure to oppose it could encourage other "adventurers" to stage coups in Latin America.

"If the countries that can ... make gestures do not do so, we do not know where else there could be a coup," Lula said in Portgual on Sunday. His government is increasingly flexing its muscles as Latin America's emerging power and has been disappointed by Washington's response to the Honduras crisis.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the leader of a socialist bloc in Latin America and a close ally of Zelaya, said the vote was "an electoral farce."

The election, which was scheduled before the coup, took place mostly peacefully despite a spate of home-made bomb explosions in recent days and police firing tear gas at pro-Zelaya protesters in the city of San Pedro Sula.

Despite Zelaya's call for a boycott, large numbers of people formed lines at ballot stations. The electoral tribunal said voter turnout was 61 percent, more than the previous election in 2005.

The OAS and United Nations refused to send observers to the election.

Zelaya had upset Congress and the Supreme Court by forging an alliance with Chavez and hinting that the wanted to change the constitution to allow presidential re-election.

Zelaya, who became easily recognizable in the world's media in recent months with his white cowboy hat and bushy moustache, has been camped out in the Brazilian embassy since September when he slipped back into Honduras from exile. The embassy is surrounded by troops and police with orders to arrest him if he leaves.