Poll predicts consecutive victory for Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is seeking an unprecedented second consecutive term in office, is the favourite to win the November election, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

Hernandez, of the Conservative National Party, polled 36% support, double the 18% of his nearest rival Luis Zelaya, an academic running for the center-right Liberal Party, according to a CID/Gallup poll in local newspaper La Prensa.

The president was barred from seeking re-election by the constitution until the Supreme Court overturned the ban in 2015. The ruling came six years after a military coup in ousted leftist president Manuel Zelaya following his own efforts to reverse the re-election ban via referendum.

Manuel Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro, of the leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE) was third in the poll, garnering 12% support, with independent Salvador Nasralla, a center-right political television show host, on 11%.

Once saddled with the distinction of being the most murderous country in the world, Honduras has reduced homicides under Hernandez, helping the 48-year-old defy fears he wants to tighten his hold on power in the Central American nation. Voters also elect a new Congress in November.

The poll showed the president's National Party leading, with support of 36%, unchanged from a January survey. It was followed by the Liberal Party with 22%, an improvement of seven percentage points from January. The survey was conducted among 1,224 voters between May 2-9 with a margin of error of 2.82%, the paper said.