Honduras in crisis over president term-limit row

Honduras President Manuel Zelaya sings the national anthem inside the presidential house in Tegucigalpa June 25, 2009. The Honduran supreme court barred Zelaya from ousting the military chief of staff on Thursday after the army refused to help him run an unofficial referendum on extending his mandate, escalating a constitutional crisis.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A constitutional crisis in Honduras deepened Thursday after the supreme court rejected President Manuel Zelaya's firing of the top military officer in a dispute over Zelaya's quest to allow presidents to serve more than a single four-year term in office.

Zelaya, an ally of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, vowed to push ahead with an unofficial vote Sunday to gauge public support for lifting constitutional limits on presidential terms despite objections by courts and the military.

He rallied supporters in Tegucigalpa, capital of the Central American coffee and banana-exporting nation of around 7 million people, and told them the court's move amounted to a "coup" against him.

Zelaya and his supporters stormed an air force base to take hold of ballot boxes being stored for Sunday's vote.

"No one can stop the referendum Sunday," he shouted to a cheering crowd, promising to proceed with the vote.

Zelaya Wednesday said he had fired Gen. Romeo Vasquez, head of the nation's armed forces, after the military refused to help Zelaya hold Sunday's vote. The president also announced that Defence Minister Edmundo Orellana had resigned.

But the supreme court ruled Thursday that the president had no right to fire Vasquez and called for his reinstatement.

In Sunday's vote, Hondurans will be asked whether they would back an official referendum later this year to change the constitution. Sunday's vote will hold no legal weight after a court recently ruled it invalid.

Zelaya is seeking public support for a constitutional change that would let him run for a second four-year term after his current term ends next year, following similar moves by other Latin American leftists.

A presidential election is scheduled for November. Zelaya has said he does not intend to try to run in that election, and any constitutional change would apply to future elections.

But critics have said his moves amount to a power grab.

'NOT CRITICAL YET'

"It's delicate but not critical yet," said Eurasia Group analyst Heather Berkman of the situation.

"(Zelaya) has certainly alienated the business and political elite during his tenure, and it looks like this is beginning to come to a head," Berkman added.

Berkman said Zelaya does not appear willing to operate within the established institutions of the country, "and that raises very serious questions about how things are going to move forward."

In announcing that he had fired military chief of staff Vasquez and accepted the Defence minister's resignation, Zelaya said the shake-up was due "to a crisis caused by some sectors that have promoted destabilisation and chaos."

The president took action against the military because the armed forces refused to distribute ballot boxes for Sunday's referendum as is customary in Honduran elections, said a source close to the president's office.

"The resolution was arbitrary and violated the constitution and the law of the armed forces, so the official should be reinstated to his post," court magistrate Rosalinda Cruz told a news conference, explaining the court's rejection of Vasquez's firing.

Opinion polls give Zelaya public approval ratings of around 30 percent, but analysts believe his pledges to help the poor may have won him stronger support in rural communities in a country in which many people live in poverty.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer)