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    November 06, 2011

Nicaraguan President Favored in Sunday's Election

   VOA News
   Police officers carry boxes filled with ballots to waiting vehicles
   that will distribute the material to polling centers, in Managua,
   Nicaragua, November 5, 2011. Photo: AP
   Police officers carry boxes filled with ballots to waiting vehicles
   that will distribute the material to polling centers, in Managua,
   Nicaragua, November 5, 2011.

   Nicaraguans go to the polls Sunday in a presidential election with
   incumbent Daniel Ortega as the strong front-runner.
   Ortega, a onetime Sandinista revolutionary, is poised to become the
   first Nicaraguan president to serve back-to-back terms since the end of
   a dictatorship in 1979.
   A recent public opinion poll indicates President Ortega leads top
   contender Fabio Gadea of the Liberal Independent Party by 18 percentage
   points, and could get enough votes to avoid a runoff.
   Ortega first came to power in 1984 after earlier leading a movement to
   overthrow the country's dictator, Anastasio Somoza. President Ortega
   lost his re-election bid in 1990, but regained power in 2006.
   His popularity has been buoyed by his support for a free-market economy
   and assistance to the poor, who make up almost half of Nicaragua's
   nearly 6 million residents. The country is among the poorest in the
   Western Hemisphere.
   The U.S. has raised concerns ahead of Sunday's poll, because people
   have complained of not getting voting cards.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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