FACTBOX: Presidential hopefuls aim to lead coup-hit Honduras

(Reuters) - Hondurans go to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president after their democratically elected leader was ousted by soldiers in a June coup and replaced by a de facto government.

Manuel Zelaya, who snuck back into Honduras in September and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy, says the election is illegitimate and the Organization of American States has refused to send international observers to the ballot boxes.

The United States sees the elections as a way out of Central America's worst political crisis in decades, but some Latin American governments threaten not to recognize the winner if Zelaya is not reinstated.

Campaigning was muted and rushed against a backdrop of negotiations between Zelaya and the de facto government with both candidates tight-lipped on the issue of Zelaya's return.

Here are some facts about the two leading candidates, both members of Honduras' traditional ruling elite:

PORFIRIO "PEPE" LOBO

* Lobo, which means "Wolf" in Spanish, is the front-runner in the race after he narrowly lost the election to Zelaya in 2005. The first time around he ran on a hardline platform to bring back the death penalty -- outlawed in Honduras for almost 60 years -- to clamp down on gang violence.

* Considered a rural strongman, the 61-year-old is a prosperous grain and cattle farmer, as well as a congressman, and has extensive lands in the fertile eastern region of Honduras. Like Zelaya, he is from the province of Olancho, known for its pistol- and machete-toting men with a macho streak. Zelaya said he considers Lobo a "close friend" but the candidate has avoided publicly backing the toppled president.

* Married three times and the father of 11 children, he practices tae kwon do in his spare time and studied in he United States.

* His conservative National Party voted unanimously to oust Zelaya but his distance from the ruling Liberal Party, which was split by the coup, has helped give him a 16-point lead over his closest rival in an October CID-Gallup poll.

ELVIN SANTOS

* Both Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, Honduras' de facto leader appointed by Congress after the coup, are from Santos' Liberal Party, dampening his chances of winning as voters disillusioned by the crisis look for a change.

* A young and wealthy businessman, Santos, 46, ran his family's construction business -- the largest in the country -- before being chosen as Zelaya's vice president. He was one of the first politicians to openly criticize Zelaya's growing alliance with socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and eventually moved his offices out of the presidential palace. He resigned to enter the campaign, beating Micheletti to win the Liberal Party's nomination.

* Santos is running on a platform of social spending and education but shied from big rallies before November due to the country's tense atmosphere.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Gustavo Palencia; Editing by Doina Chiacu)