Posted by
Rodrigo Pineda-Icaza on Monday, November 06, 2006 4:26:04 AM
The Elections of Sunday , November 05 in Nicaragua has been the most challenging Elections since the fall of the Totalitarian Sandinista Goverment in 1990. For the First time the democratic forces in Nicaragua came into the election split in 2 major forces, the PLC and The ALN-PC. In the previous 3 free elections in Nicaragua, the democratic people of Nicaragua presented a single presidential candidate to win 3 times in a row versus the Totalitarian forces of the Sandinistas.
The polls are closed and the more contentious part of the election started, counting the votes. The first and second voting result announcements puts the Sandinistas winning the elections with approximated 40% of the votes. The last provisional result given by the president of the Nicaraguan Electoral Council, Roberto Rivas, at 3.20 AM, this morning with a 14.65% of the popular vote( or it could be the poll stations) is as follows.
FSLN 40.04%
ALN-PC 33.29%
PLC 19.51%
The Sandistas and Daniel Ortega are calling the election on its favor and thousands of its supporters are on the streets celebrating and intimidating the population.
Representatives of other Political parties are calling that behavior irresponsible and are calling for a stop to the street celebrations. Also are criticizing the Electoral Council of slow-counting, misrepresentation of the result as the vote counting has not being even , as some of the heavy Sandista-leaning areas as Leon has been accounted for 25% but democratic-leaning areas as Matagalpa only 6%.
The ANL-PC presidential candidate, Eduardo Montealegre, in a speech from his campaign headquaters is saying that their own intenal counting is giving his party enough votes to force a runoff. And other parties are reporting that all parallel countings are indicating a close race, forcing a second round between Daniel Ortega and Eduardo Montealegre.
There has been some irregularities reported in the voting process as well. Some voting stations closed earlier than the legal time, Thousands of people were not issue the voting credentials required to vote. The elections are being heavily observed by international agencies like the European Union, the Organization of American Estates, the Carter Centre etc... due to the fact that even after 3 free election there are serious concern about the Electoral Council independence as is controlled by the Sandinistas that has been essential in controlling electoral laws, such as the inability of Nicaraguan abroad to vote (there estimated half a millions votes abroad with a 90% of them being democratic) or the 35% popular vote winning rule which could make Ortega president today.
I believe there are no Sleeping Nicraguan right now, everyone is on their toes , following the initial results of the elections.
Roddy