Ortega wins Nicaraguan election

[Dr. Shane]

Ortega wins Nicaraguan election

Quote:

There has been no reaction yet from Mr Ortega, who needed to win 40% of votes, or 35% and a five-point margin, to win outright and avoid a second round.

He will take office in January next year.

Mr Ortega led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, but says he has changed from the leader who seized property from the wealthy during the 1979 Sandinista revolution.

That assessment was endorsed by former US President Jimmy Carter, who was an observer in the elections.

However, the new president's opponents have expressed concern that he will take the nation back to the days of the civil war with the Contra rebels.

Quote:

the country's right wing, which previously always managed to field a single candidate against him, was divided on this occasion.

Mr Ortega has seen 16 years of conservative governments and says he wants an end to "savage capitalism".

But he says his revolutionary days are behind him - and his main priority is to secure foreign investment to help to ease widespread poverty.

He was also hoping for support from the 80% of Nicaraguans who live on $2 a day or less.

As a Marxist revolutionary in the 1980s, Mr Ortega led the country through a decade of civil war in which his Sandinista forces fought rebels known as the Contras, who were financed by the United States. About 50,000 people died in the conflict.

Let's hope he sticks to his promises and doesn't cancel their constitution like Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela.