TEGUGIGALPA -- The Honduran congress voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to reaffirm its June decision to fire President Manuel ``Mel'' Zelaya, leaving up in the air what will happen to the deposed leader who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy for more than two months.

``We stand by our position that Zelaya can't be restored because he violated the constitution,'' Rodolfo Irias, the congressional president of the National Party, said during the debate.

Following eight hours of discussions, 111 lawmakers voted against Zelaya's return, 14 in favor of his reinstatement and three abstained from the daylong session, which opened with a prayer asking guidance from God, who ``offers kings and takes them away.''

The odds for reinstatement seemed stacked against Zelaya from the start. His political fate rested with the same 128-member legislative body that voted overwhelmingly in June in favor of his removal on charges of treason and abuse of power.

And the session opened with a video that served to document Zelaya's errors and justify the congress' June 28 decision to replace him.

On Wednesday, more than 90 legislators signed the motion supporting his ouster, more than needed to keep Zelaya from returning to power.

The country's Human Rights Commission, attorney general and ombudsman offered legal opinions advising against Zelaya's restitution.

The attorney general said Zelaya was replaced because he was ``absent.''

Zelaya was whisked away at gunpoint on June 28 and flown to Costa Rica after the Supreme Court issued an order for his arrest. He faces charges of treason, abuse of power and usurping power.

Critics believe the arrest warrant was drafted after his ouster.

The court decided Zelaya broke several laws by pushing for a constitutional referendum that had been outlawed by the Supreme Court. Days before the scheduled referendum was to take place, Zelaya led a caravan of supporters to storm the country's Air Force base and reclaim the ballots the court had deemed illegal.

``Our democracy and our peace is in the emergency waiting room in a very grave state,'' said leftist congressman César Ham, who was one of five candidates who ran for president. ``What occurred on the 28th of June is a coup d'etat. You can't call it anything else.''

Even if congress had approved his reinstatement, Zelaya advisor Carlos Eduardo Reina said Zelaya would have only accepted it if it gave the former president back the five months of mandate that were taken from him.

Zelaya remains hunkered down in the Brazilian embassy, where he has been since he snuck back into the country on Sept. 21.

Wednesday's vote was part of a U.S.-backed pact, signed off by Zelaya and de facto President Roberto Micheletti in October. The accord called for the formation of a unity government and left the decision of reinstatement up to congress.

The accord does not say what should happen to the toppled president if congress did not give him his job back.

While Micheletti named representatives to the unity government, Zelaya refused to participate. He argued that congressional leaders violated the spirit of the pact by delaying his reinstatement vote until after Sunday's presidential elections -- more than two months after the pact was signed.

The critical vote came under stiff pressure from the international community. Several countries have insisted that Zelaya complete the remainder of his term, set to expire Jan. 27.

The impoverished Central American nation has been largely isolated since Zelaya's removal, with several countries servering diplomatic ties and withdrawing large sums of economic aid.

Sunday's presidential elections were seen as a step forward for the country after 61 percent of the nation's voters took to the polls. Conservative former congressman Porfirio ``Pepe'' Lobo was declared the winner.

Still much of the Western Hemisphere remains split on how to proceed with recognizing the newly elected government if Zelaya is not returned to power.

The U.S. State Department recognized Lobo's win, but said the elections were just the first step of many Honduras needed to take to normalize relations with the United States.

``It's only a step . . . and it's not the last step,'' Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela told reporters following the election.

The presidents of Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Peru have all accepted the results of Sunday's election. An important bloc of Latin American nations, including Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, has refused to recognize Lobo's win.

Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, went as far as saying he will reach out to other Ibero-American leaders to accept the results and work with the newly elected government

Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina have insisted the elections were illegitimate and called for Zelaya's immediate return.

``We cannot pretend nothing happened,'' Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told The Associated Press.

Several Honduran lawmakers used the televised opportunity to send a message to Socialist leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chávez to stop meddling in Honduran political affairs.

``This land does not belong to Chávez or Fidel [Castro]; it belongs to Honduras,'' said Oscar Burgos, a congressman with the National Party.

Hundreds' of Zelaya's supporters dubbed the ``Resistance Movement'' gathered at a park in the capital city to await the vote. They were surrounded by police in riot gear.

``In the interest of the country, they really had to restore Mel,'' said José Gilberto Palma, one of hundreds of members of Zelaya's support group who gathered in a park all day Wednesday to await the vote. ``What we had here was a coup, and the whole world knows it.''