Honduras ruling party candidate has irreversible lead: Electoral body

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' conservative ruling party candidate, Juan Hernandez, has an irreversible lead in the vote count from Sunday's presidential election, the country's electoral authority said on Monday. Hernandez had 34.08 percent of the vote versus 28.92 percent for his leftist rival, Xiomara Castro, with 67.75 percent of polling booths counted, the authority said. Hernandez' election win ensures continuity for outgoing President Porfirio Lobo's right-leaning economic policies. It is also a blow to leftist ex-president Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed in a 2009 coup that plunged Honduras into a political crisis and who had hoped to stage a political comeback behind Castro, his wife. (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Miguel Gutierrez and Gustavo Palencia)