Ortega Keeps Lead in the Count
Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega continues the advantage over his rivals in the contest for the Nicaraguan presidency, with 40.43 percent of the voting committees counted.

The third preliminary count, which was announced noon Monday by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) revealed that Ortega has achieved 40 percent of the votes, enough to win in the first round, according to the Constitution.

His closest rival is still ex banker of the Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense (Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance), with 32.72 percent, while Jose Rizo, of the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (Constitutionalist Liberal Party), reached 20.33 percent in this third partial count.

The Movimiento Renovador Sandinista (Sandinista Renovative Movement) candidate Edmundo Jarquin is in fourth position (7.50 percent), and Eden Pastora, of Alternativa por el Cambio (Alternative for Change), is still in last position,place with just 0.29 percent.

According to CSE President Roberto Rivas, this third report was based on 1,008,411 valid votes counted in 40.43 percent of the 11,274 Vote Receiving Committees in the country.

He said 500 electoral minutes of counts in difficult-access rural areas are yet to be received at Managua Vote Count Center, due to transmission problems.

With almost half of the colleges counted by the CSE, the Sandinista leader, who the independent Ethics and Accountability organization already named winner of the Nicaraguan presidency, walks steadily toward the Republic s presidency.

The rivals of the Sandinista National Liberation Front have refused to accept the preliminary results, and announced they will wait until the last vote is counted.

Meanwhile, the Sandinistas have been celebrating since early Monday morning, and took Ortega s return to power, starting on January 10, as a fact.