Americas News
Voting underway in Nicaraguan election, Ortega favourite (Roundup)
By DPA
Nov 5, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Managua, Nicaragua - Nicaraguans went to the polls Sunday to choose a new president in an election that could give leftist Daniel Ortega a chance to govern the Central American country in peacetime, 16 years after his first stormy presidency.

Around 3.6 million Nicaraguans are eligible to vote on whether the country should swing to the left under Ortega, of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), or whether it should continue the course set by the current conservative leadership.

But with four coalitions and one political party fielding candidates for the post vacated by outgoing President Enrique Bolanos after his single five-year term, a runoff between the top two finishers appeared likely.

To win outright in the first round, Sunday's winner will need more than 40 per cent of the vote, or 35 per cent with at least a 5-point advantage over the second-placed candidate.

Opinion polls suggest that Ortega, 59, will win a first-round plurality of about one-third of the vote, ahead of his main rival former banker Eduardo Montealegre, 51, a nominee of Bolanos' breakaway Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN).

Polls put Jose Rizo, 62, of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC, from which Bolanos broke in 2005), in third place.

'Nicaragua is going to win today,' Ortega said after he cast his vote in Managua, expressing his confidence in a high turnout.

Montealegre in turn said he was confident of beating Ortega, and pointed to the country's recent electoral history as an signal that the leftist politician may be denied another presidential term.

'Nicaraguans have shown wisdom and intelligence and have known how to choose, and I am sure they will do it again,' the former minister of finance and foreign affairs said in Managua.

Long queues formed outside polling stations in the morning amid reports of delays in the opening of several centres.

The president of the election authority, Roberto Rivas, urged his countrymen to 'vote without fear.' A turnout of about 76 per cent was expected.

Around 33,000 army troops were on duty to provide security around the election, which was being monitored by more than 17,000 local and international observers, including those from the Organization of American States, the European Union and the private Carter Centre of former US president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter.

The spectre of possible election fraud was frequently raised during the campaign as the election authority is controlled by the Sandinistas.

Polling stations were set to close at 0000 GMT. The first official results are expected soon after 0400 GMT on Monday.

Ortega was president from 1985-90 as the country endured a civil war pitting his Marxist Sandinistas against US-sponsored Contra rebels, leaving more than 50,000 people dead.

Also up for election are the post of vice-president, 90 members of the unicameral National Assembly and 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament.

The winner is set to be inaugurated on January 10 as the president of a country where 80 per cent of the population of 5.5 million people lives in poverty.