TEGUCIGALPA — Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said Thursday he would legally contest November 29 elections because they were taking place before Congress decides if he can briefly return to power.
Zelaya also called for the polls to be postponed.
The Honduran Congress announced earlier this week that it would not consider whether Zelaya should be allowed to return to office, part of a US-brokered deal to end months of political crisis, until three days after the polls.
"As president of Honduras, I declare that in these conditions I will not support this process and I'll contest it legally," said Zelaya from the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital where he has been since September.
"The elections have to be postponed in order to make them legitimate," the former rancher said in a statement later.
Zelaya is barred from competing in the upcoming presidential poll in which his successor will be chosen.
Even if he is reinstated by Congress he will have to step down on January 27 when his term naturally ends.
Zelaya, who was forced out of the country in his pajamas in a June 28 military-backed coup only to sneak back into the country nearly three months later, has called on his supporters to boycott the elections.
As tensions rose, with soldiers deploying across the country and Zelaya supporters planning protests, interim leader Roberto Micheletti called on the ousted president to avoid provoking bloodshed.
"I ask (Zelaya) with all my heart to try to avoid a single drop of blood being spilled," said Micheletti.
Regional powerhouses Brazil and Argentina have said they will not recognize the results of the upcoming presidential election unless Zelaya is reinstated beforehand.
The United States, the country's main military and economic backer, has said it will support the results of the polls depending on how they are conducted.
The Honduran Congress and Supreme Court, business leaders and the military all backed Zelaya's ouster, accusing him of seeking to change the constitution to stay in office beyond the one-term limit.
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