NICARAGUA: Nicaraguan presidential candidates make appearances ahead of Sunday's election

Nicaragua's presidential candidates worked in some last-minute appearances on Wednesday (November 01) just days ahead of the country's presidential election. Centre-right former banker Eduardo Montealegre held a news conference where he appeared to be defending himself against a possible loss on Sunday (November 05). He told the media that a win for Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega may only come about because of a pact signed between him and former President Arnoldo Aleman in the 1990s. "Aleman decided to give his votes so that the Constitution would be changed and the percentage to avoid a second round will go from 45 percent to 35 percent. That is the reason for why today there exists this supposed division between among the liberals. That is the reason for why there is some chance that Daniel Ortega may win. It is for this change from 45 to 35 percent - then the one villain here is Arnoldo Aleman," said Montealegre. Ortega could emerge from 16 years in opposition to become Nicaragua's president on Sunday, helped by the weak record of pro-Washington governments. Meanwhile on Wednesday, Ortega turned up at Managua's Chamber of Commerce to sign an agreement that if elected, he will respect freedom for businesses and will stand by a market economy. He told reporters that he would also work with to increase Nicaraguan products' presence in the United States with the Central American Free Trade Agreement. "We want to give incentives to the sectors that are already working with the North American market so that our products can continue to be placed in the North American market and to look for a safe market in the Latin American market such as Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina or Chile," he said. Voting in the impoverished Central American nation will be watched closely by the United States, which trained and financed Contra rebels to fight Ortega's Sandinista government in a 1980s civil war that killed 30,000 people. A Sandinista win would likely irk U.S. President George W. Bush, whose father, then president, celebrated the end of Ortega's decade-long rule in 1990. It would also mark a victory for President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a U.S. foe. Chavez has shipped cheap fuel to Nicaragua to ease blackouts and to try to boost Ortega's chances. Opinion polls have Ortega well in the lead, thanks to a split in the ruling Liberal Party. Washington hopes Montealegre will stave off an outright first-round defeat and beat Ortega in a runoff. Nicaragua is still scarred by the 1979 Sandinista revolution against the Somoza family dictatorship and the civil war that followed.

ITN Source | November 2, 2006

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