Tuesday 18 November
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Nicaragua Still
Tense After Vote
Guatemala, UN to Probe
Bus Killing
Bolivian President
Grateful for World Support
Ecuadorian Navy
Seizes 4 Tons of Cocaine
Public Sector Workers On
Strike in Chile
|
Nicaragua Still Tense
After Vote
Managua - Although
Nicaragua woke up calmly
today there is tension
derived from constant
clashes between
Sandinistas and
opponents who reject the
result of recent
municipal elections.
Managua experienced
several violent
confrontations last
week, and supporters of
the ruling Sandinista
National Liberation
Front (FSLN) are still
celebrating the victory
of their mayoralty
candidate ex boxer
Alexis Arguello.
But banker Eduardo
Montealegre who
represented the Liberal
Constitutionalist Party
(PLC) in the contest for
the presidency, says he
is the real winner and
announced a new protest
for Tuesday against
electoral fraud.
The clashes have also
reached Leon, 55 miles
west of the capital and
where liberals have also
challenged the results
in which their mayoralty
candidate of this
so-called University
City came up as loser.
A convoy from Managua
led by Montealegre and
other opposition leaders
could only move 30 miles
because the Sandinistas
set up barricades on the
road and forced them to
go back with sticks and
stones.
According to preliminary
reports of the police
Sunday's clashes in
western Nicaragua
wounded at least 7.
Temporary results issued
by the Electoral Supreme
Council (ESC) gave a
majority to the FSLN,
which according to data
has won 101 of the 132
mayoralties counted
until now.
However vote counting
has been challenged by
the opposition, which is
demanding to revise each
of the lists of the
11,808 vote receiving
committees in the
country.
They are also asking to
recount votes in
presence of
international and
national observers,
specifically from Carter
Center, the Organization
of American States (OAS)
and two local entities
well-known for their
criticism of the ESC.
In spite of all in
Managua where the ESC
agreed to make vote
recounting, Montealegre
is still proclaiming
himself winner even
though the result of the
revision will benefit
Arguello again. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
