Opinion polls say Ortega will win
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from September 1989.
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President Ortega, who has led Nicaragua since the bloody 1979 revolution, was chosen by his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) on Sunday as its candidate.
Opinion polls indicate he will win handsomely against newspaper publisher Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and several other opposition candidates on 25 February. The bigger challenge would be to persuade the west to help Nicaragua sort out its economic problems, diplomats say.
Observers from the United Nations and the orgainsation of American States are already in place to monitor the election, training an international spotlight on Nicaragua out of all proportion to its size and wealth.
"If they win, the Sandinistas are likely to get more support from European nations," a senior western diplomat in Managua said. "They won't be able to rig the elections with all the international observers here." After outlasting his arch enemy, Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, the 43-year-old Nicaraguan leader seems keen to improve his relations with the administration of President George Bush. He has invited former president Jimmy Carter to observe the Nicaraguan election.
Carter was an observer at Panama's election in May, which he denounced as a fraud.
