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MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was poised to easily capture his third consecutive term and fourth overall as voters headed to the polls Sunday. His wife, Rosario Murillo, is his vice presidential running mate against five lesser-known candidates.
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Ortega, 70, is a former Marxist guerrilla who became the country's first post-revolutionary president, serving until 1990. He lost his reelection bid in 1990 to Violeta Chamorro, the U.S.-backed candidate of the National Opposition Union, but won the presidency in 2006.
A court decision allowed Ortega to run for re-election in 2011 despite a one-term limit. Then a constitutional amendment allowed unlimited presidential terms.
M&R Consultants' national poll shows 69.8 percent planned to vote for Ortega and his leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front Party, compared with 8.1 percent for right-wing opposition candidate Maximino Rodriguez. Another 15.5 percent identified themselves as independents, or refused to answer the survey, M&R said.
Many detractors have called for a boycott.
"The elections are controlled by a single party," Julio Salazar, who says he plans not to cast a ballot, told the Los Angeles Times. "We are left with no options."
Ortega has presided over a strong economy.
"His government has maintained a healthy economy, with significant increase in direct foreign investment of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars per year," journalist and political analyst Adolfo Pastran said in the Inter-American Dialogue. "Ortega has said he will continue doing the same and better in order to maintain a healthy economy, reduce poverty, engage in dialogue with the private sector, and improve public safety and the lives of Nicaraguans."
