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Daniel Ortega Poised To Retain Nicaraguan Presidency

Benjamin Gottlieb |
November 6, 2011 | 8:36 p.m. PST

Senior News Editor

Daniel Ortega (Photo obtained via Creative Commons license).
Daniel Ortega (Photo obtained via Creative Commons license).
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Sandinista revolutionary turned born-again Christian, is expected to be reelected to his third term as president of the country, amid claims that he rigged national elections by manipulating the Nicaraguan constitution. 

Initially barred from running for reelection, Ortega pushed Nicaragua's Supreme Court -- which has a Sandinista majority -- to augment a stipulation in the nation's constitution barring candidates from seeking a third tour in the presidential office.

“The main question today is not what the election result will be but, rather, what level of legitimacy will be given a reelection achieved under the shadows of a process that was fraudulent from the beginning,” said Carlos Fernando Chamorro, a former Sandinista and Ortega critic.
 
The New York Times reported that two major civic groups in Nicaragua, along with Etica y Transparencia, a voter transparency group, have found serious problems with the electoral process.

From the New York Times:

Hagamos Democracia, or Let’s Have Democracy, reported 600 complaints of voting irregularities, and opponents of Mr. Ortega, 65, were quick to point out what they said were voting irregularities across the country.

At one polling place in southern Nicaragua, election officials were accused by supporters of Mr. Ortega’s chief rival, Fabio Gadea, a conservative owner of a radio station, of providing two ballots to each supporter of Mr. Ortega’s party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

In Managua, officials were said to have ejected voting supervisors of opposing parties.

In Matagalpa, however, protesters burned voting materials at one polling station, and 17 people were injured in a fight between supporters of Mr. Ortega and Mr. Gadea on Saturday night.

Ortega, 65, bolstered his popularity in Nicaragua after reassuming the presidency in 2007 by combining pork-barrel populism with a free market approach to the nations economy, the Guardian reported. Ortega was also one of the only heads-of-state to publically support embattled Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi during the recent Libyan war.

From the BBC:

Few political figures in Latin America divide opinion more strongly than Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

To his supporters he is a heroic revolutionary who overthrew a brutal dictator and has since dedicated his life to improving conditions in one of the region's poorest countries.

To his critics - including many former allies - he is a corrupt and authoritarian ruler who has turned his back on his revolutionary ideals and come to resemblethe dictator he deposed.

To read the BBC's profile of Ortega, click here.

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