Ortega set for landslide win in presidential vote: Electoral board
A preliminary vote count shows that incumbent Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is set to win a third consecutive term in office.
With over 21 percent of polling stations counted in the six-candidate presidential race, Ortega had over 71 percent of the votes in the Central American nation's presidential election on Sunday, electoral official said.
His main opponent, the center-right Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) candidate Maximino Rodriguez, was a distant second with over 16 percent of the ballots.
The announcement sent hundreds of his leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party supporters out into the streets of Managua to celebrate.
The opposition, however, said it will not recognize the outcome and reiterated that it viewed the vote as a “farce.”
Full official results would reportedly be given at 11:00 am (1700 GMT) on Monday.
Most recent opinion polls had predicted an easy victory for Ortega and his running mate, wife Rosario Murillo.
Ortega, a former leftist guerrilla leader who deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, led the Sandinista guerrilla movement before becoming president in 1985 for a five-year term that ended with an electoral defeat in 1990. He returned to presidency in 2006.
Opponents accuse Ortega of trying to set up a family dynasty. However, surveys show Ortega enjoys voter support for a drop in poverty in one of the poorest countries in Latin America during his tenure.
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