Nicaragua still Tense after Vote

Managua, Nov 17 (Prensa Latina)

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.