Managua, Nicaragua – Daniel Ortega, the revolutionary Marxist who battled a U.S.-backed Contra insurgency in the 1980s, was closing in on Nicaragua’s presidency Monday, appearing to have defeated four opponents with promises that he was a changed man.
Electoral officials had yet to release final results from Sunday’s vote, but preliminary results and two of the country’s top electoral watchdog groups gave Ortega about 40 percent of the vote.
That was more than enough to avoid a runoff against Harvard-educated banker Eduardo Montealegre, who trailed by at least 7 percentage points.
Ortega’s rivals refused to recognize his victory, saying they would wait until all the votes had been counted. The United States, which has threatened to pull aid from an Ortega government, also said it was too soon to declare the Sandinista leader a winner.
“This isn’t over until the last vote has been counted,” Montealegre said.
If Ortega’s victory is confirmed, the Cold War icon would join a growing number of leftist Latin American rulers, led by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, who has tried to help his Nicaraguan ally by shipping cheap oil to the poor, energy-starved nation.
