SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 05, 2011
Nicaraguan Elections Bulletin No. 1 (November 6, 2011)
More news on Monday, Nov. 6Nicaraguans voted for president, vice-president and National Assembly members today. The polls have been closed since 7:00pm Nicaragua time but results were not expected to be released until midnight when the first numbers from Managua were scheduled to be announced by the Supreme Electoral Council. There were a few incidents of violence in some parts of the country but, on the whole the elections happened peacefully. Sandinista media sources reported some early results with the FSLN leading by a large margin in a few towns while opposition media emphasized irregularities and denounced fraud. For example, La Primerisima reported that in Leon the Sandinista Party of President Daniel Ortega received 68% of the vote to 19% for the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) of Fabio Gadea. At the same time, the newspaper El Nuevo Diario reported accusations that opposition poll watchers in several precincts in the city had been intimidated.
Dante Caputo, Head of the observer/accompanier mission of the Organization of American States said that his team had trouble gaining access in 20% of the polling places they visited. Luis Yanez of the European Union mission confirmed that his team had had some of the same problems.
When he went to vote at his polling place, Ortega called on Nicaraguans to vote massively and pacifically, while his major opponent, Gadea, did the same and said that he had observed that the voting was going well. (La Prensa, Nov. 6; El Nuevo Diario, Nov. 6; Radio La Primerisima, Nov. 6)
Labels: Archives