Honduras in crisis over president term-limit row

By Gustavo Palencia

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.