Running with his wife as VP, Daniel Ortega wins 3rd consecutive term in Nicaragua
Source: Fox News Latino
President Daniel Ortega won re-election to a third consecutive term as Nicaragua's leader, electoral officials said late Sunday. With about a fifth of ballots counted in the six-candidate presidential race, Ortega had more than 71% of the votes, the president of the Supreme Electoral Council, Roberto Rivas, said.
Ortega ran with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his vice presidential candidate in a race that pitted him against five lesser-known candidates after court rulings weakened the opposition. They defeated former Contra guerrilla Maximino Rodríguez of the right-wing Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), who obtained 14.2%, and four other candidates.
Critics of the government said the election was unfairly tilted against the opposition, but Murillo praised the process. Rivas said 65% of Nicaragua's 3.8 million registered voters participated in the election. The opposition, which had urged people to boycott the vote, disputed that, contending turnout was low. The main opposition movement, the Broad Front for Democracy, estimated "more than 70 percent" of voters did not cast ballots.
Ortega and his leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) have benefited from the Central American country's steady economic growth and low levels of violence compared to neighboring Honduras and El Salvador. Many Nicaraguans also cite the first lady's social programs as a major reason for the governing party's popularity.
But critics accused Ortega and his allies of manipulating the political system. In July, Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council effectively decimated the opposition by ousting almost all its members from congress.
After helping topple the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza as a Sandinista guerrilla leader, Ortega ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, then lost power in an unexpected electoral defeat. He returned to the presidency through the ballot box in 2007.
Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/11/07/running-with-his-wife-as-vp-daniel-ortega-wins-3rd-consecutive-term-in/
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