Most Hondurans want both ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya and interim President Roberto Micheletti to make way for a third person in the Nov. 29 presidential election, results of an opinion poll in La Prensa newspaper showed.
The opinion poll results showed 63 percent of people interviewed said they want the presidential election to go ahead as scheduled but with a caretaker president in place to ensure voting is transparent and fair.
However, 34 percent of the people queried in the CID-Gallup poll opposed the option, MercoPress reported.
Zelaya was ousted by the army June 28 after he ignored Supreme Court orders not to go ahead with a referendum on rewriting the constitution apparently to allow an extension of his term in office.
Last month he sneaked into Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy. He has been waging a campaign for reinstatement from the embassy grounds and has defied government attempts to arrest him and his supporters.
However, as the impasse continues, support for other political figures in the race has grown. These include former Presidents Carlos Flores (1998-2002) and Ricardo Maduro (1994-1998) and opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
International diplomatic efforts have focused on having Zelaya restored to the presidency to oversee the election, because an election organized by Micheletti's regime will not be recognized as legitimate.
The latest initiative has brought three senior U.S. diplomats to Tegucigalpa in the first direct attempt by the Obama administration to help resolve the crisis. The delegation includes Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spoken to both Zelaya and Micheletti in an effort to resolve the crisis.
Kelly said the U.S. diplomats hoped to meet with representatives from both sides to discuss strategies to move the reconciliation process forward. "They will urge both sides to show flexibility and redouble their efforts to bring the crisis to an end," Kelly said.
Micheletti said this week dialogue between the interim government and supporters of Zelaya is "not going to fix anything" before the Nov. 29 ballot, MercoPress reported.
The compromise solution backed by the Obama administration argues that if Zelaya is reinstated before his term expires in January and oversees the election, Honduras will be spared further diplomatic isolation and suspension of international aid.
U.S. officials and Latin American diplomats have said a presidential election without a due legal process would open Honduras to international criticism and deepen the economic and social crisis in the country.
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