Honduras ? Ruling party candidate Elvin Santos conceded defeat to conservative rancher Porfirio Lobo in post-coup Honduran elections Sunday.

Santos says it is time for “unity, the only path to confront the future and ensure the victor of all Hondurans.”

Preliminary official results showed Lobo, of the opposition National Party, with 56 percent support with more than 60 percent of the tally sheets counted.

Perhaps more important, election officials said more than 60 percent of registered voters cast ballots Sunday– a victory for interim leaders who hoped a large turnout would bolster the vote’s legitimacy in the eyes of the world.

But Manuel Zelaya, the president ousted in the June 28 coup, is certain to challenge that number. He said earlier that his own information from polling stations indicated abstention was as high as 65 percent, insisting the vote had no legitimacy and should not be recognized. No pro-Zelaya presidential candidate ran Sunday.

Supreme Electoral Tribunal officials said in a new conference late Sunday that Liberal Party candidate Santos was second with 38 percent support.

The candidates’ campaigns have been overshadowed by the debate over whether Hondurans should vote at all in an election largely shunned by international monitors.