Reelection of Nicaraguan president confirmed by electoral tribunal

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has won a convincing reelection with 62.7 percent of the vote, the Supreme Electoral Council (CES) said Tuesday. CES President Roberto Rivas made the announcement after 96 percent of the votes were counted in Sunday's general elections. Ortega, candidate of the Sandinista National Liberation Front party (FSLN), will serve a third presidential term of five years starting early next year. Ortega was first elected president in 1985. However, Fabio Gadea, the main opposition candidate from the right-wing Independent Liberal Alliance (PLI), said the election results should be annulled because of cases of "fraud of unheard proportions." "These elections have to be invalidated and there has to be new elections to correct what is wrong," said Gadea during a protest in which his supporters blocked the southern entrance to the capital of Managua. International observers have supported complaints that irregularities took place during the electoral process. The European Union's chief observer Luis Yanez acknowledged on Tuesday he has "doubts as to the transparency of the process." But Yanez also said that even with the lack of transparency and the irregularities reported "it is beyond doubts that the Sandinist Front and Mr. Ortega had won the elections" in Nicaragua.