Ortega appears set to win Nicaragua presidency

Leftist Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega won 40.43 percent of the votes in Sunday's elections in Nicaragua, enough for him to win an outright victory, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said in a statement on Monday.

Eduardo Montealegre, candidate for the right-wing Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance, trailed with 32.7 percent of the votes.

According to Nicaraguan electoral laws, a candidate must have over 40 percent of the vote, or 35 percent with a clear five-point lead over his closest rival, in order to win the elections in one round.

Electoral analysts said that the results were unlikely to be reversed in the coming hours, which meant that Ortega will likely return to power after two previous failed attempts to regain the presidency.

Ortega, 60, a Cold War era foe of the U.S., led the country from 1979, after toppling the military dictator Anastasio Somoza. He won the presidency again in 1984 but lost the next election, and left power in 1990.

The Organization of American States said that Monday's elections and the process that led up to the elections were peaceful, orderly, popular, and legal. Other international observers also lauded the process.

However, an observer mission sent by the United States government told media that it had detected irregularities including late opening and early closing of polling stations, slow voting, and a late opening of counting.

The country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal said that the U.S. government was agitating with other observers to suggest that the election was fraudulent.

Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias said that the election was transparent. "Democracy has been consolidating across the region and Nicaragua is no exception," Arias said in a statement.

Source: Xinhua