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Bolanos Wins Nicaragua Election
A 73-year-old businessman, whose property was once taken away by the Sandinista regime that also jailed him, won Nicaragua's presidency over Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista candidate attempting a comeback 11 years after losing power.
Ortega conceded defeat Monday in his third consecutive election defeat, and supporters of the victorious Liberal Party candidate, Enrique Bolanos, chanted ``Strikeout! Strikeout!'' as they celebrated.
``Nicaragua is the winner, because we have taken another step toward the consolidation of democracy,'' Bolanos said. He called the Sandinistas ``worthy and able opponents'' and said they showed ``respect for the institutions of democracy.''
Ortega promised to continue working for national reconciliation and for a free-market economy from within the National Assembly for his Sandinista party, which retains a solid core of support in Nicaragua.
``We accept the mandate of the people and congratulate the Liberal ticket,'' he said. ``We are going to be firm allies of a peaceful Nicaragua, a free, just and prosperous nation for which so many Nicaraguans gave their life.''
Ortega alluded indirectly to U.S. hostility as one reason for his defeat, but in an apparent effort to improve his relationship with U.S. officials he pledged that in congress, he would battle against drug smuggling and terrorism, two key U.S. policy concerns.
During the campaign, the United States warned of dire consequences if Ortega were to win, invited Bolanos to hand out donated U.S. food and pressured a third candidate to leave the race.
Bolanos, who was vice president before resigning to run for the presidency, inherits an economy that is struggling under heavy debts and with losses caused by the global economic slowdown.
During his campaign, Bolanos vowed to fight corruption wherever it might be found, saying that ``immunity should not be impunity.''
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