MANAGUA, (Reuters) – Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega powered toward his third consecutive term as president of the poor Central American country yesterday, as voters cheered years of solid growth and overlooked criticisms he is installing a family dynasty. Mr Ortega and his running mate, his wife Rosario Murillo, have nearly 70 per cent support, according to a recent poll, tapping into strong voter approval for a drop in poverty in one of the poorest countries in the Americas since he took office in 2007. Ortega and his leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front have benefited from the Central American country's modest but steady economic growth and low levels of violence compared to neighboring Honduras and El Salvador. But critics accused Ortega and his allies of manipulating the political system to guarantee he stayed in power for a new five-year term by dominating all branches of government, allowing indefinite presidential re-election and delegitimizing the only opposition force seen as capable of challenging him. Sunday’s vote was for the presidency and to choose legislators in the National Assembly. Ortega wants to die in power and leave his wife to take his place.”

In July, Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council effectively decimated the opposition by ousting almost all its members from congress — 28 active and alternate legislators from the Liberal Independent Party and its ally the Sandinista Renovation Movement — for not recognizing Pedro Reyes as their leader. The opposition has been in disarray since Pedro Reyes used the courts to wrest leadership of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), the main group, from Eduardo Montealegre in June. Since then, the most powerful opposition forces have moved to the sidelines of the nation’s politics, urging Nicaraguans to join their boycott of the election, which they call a “farce.”

Many Nicaraguans, including political analyst Carlos Tunnerman, believe that the five other presidential candidates are not true opponents, but were placed on the ballot to make it seem that Ortega has legitimate competition. “Mr Ortega gets his way and he doesn’t care if he violates the rights of others,” said Maximino Rodriguez, candidate of the centre-right Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), Mr Ortega’s closest rival polling just 8 per cent support. “He comes from poverty, and he’ll keep working for the poor.”

Emerging as leader of the Sandinista movement that toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, Mr Ortega served one term as president in the 1980s before being sidelined for years. The U.S. House of Representatives has moved to punish Nicaragua since the opposition was gutted, passing a bill to require the United States to oppose loans to Nicaragua from international lending institutions unless the country takes “effective steps to hold free, fair and transparent elections.” A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate.
Voters in Nicaragua go to the polls for a general election with polls suggesting that the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega will be elected for a third successive term. Ortega's wife Rosario Murillo is running to be the Vice President of Nicaragua.