Ortega On Track To Return To Power

With just over 40% of the votes counted, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega looks set to win Nicaragua’s elections and return to power after 16 years. Ortega had polled just over the 40% needed (or 35% with a 5 percentage-point lead) for outright victory against 32.7% won by nearest rival, conservative Eduardo Montealegre. Ortega, who led Nicaragua between 1985 and 1990, says he is a changed man who will use this “new opportunity” to create a government of “reconciliation and national unity.” A win by Ortega will be a blow to the US administration which has openly opposed the former Marxist guerrilla in favor of Harvard-educated Montealegre, seen as the business community’s choice.