PENPIX-Nicaragua's leading presidential candidates
05 Nov 2006 17:08:17 GMT Source: Reuters
Nov 5 (Reuters) - Following are some facts about the four leading candidates in Nicaragua's presidential election on Sunday. -- Daniel Ortega (FSLN-Sandinista National Liberation Front): Ortega first swept to power in a popular revolution against a family dictatorship in 1979, and then led the left-wing Sandinista government in a civil war against U.S.-backed Contra rebels until he was voted out of power in 1990. He says he has has mellowed and now wants "fair markets" to replace the "savage capitalism" he once abhorred. Washington still regards him as a danger and disapproves of his friendship with hard-line left-wing leaders in Latin America. Since losing power, the mustachioed Ortega has lost two presidential elections but he still has a loyal support base that sees him as the only answer to Nicaragua's endemic poverty. Now 60 and with thinning hair and his olive-green military garb of the war years switched for white cotton casual clothes, Ortega has made up with some old foes and brought former Contra leaders into his campaign, promising peace and reconciliation. But dissident Sandinistas say he has become corrupt and power hungry. A power-sharing pact with right-wing former president and convicted embezzler Arnoldo Aleman and charges he sexually abused a stepdaughter have also hurt Ortega. -- Eduardo Montealegre (ALN - Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance): A multimillionaire former banker, Montealegre, 51, has pro-business credentials that delight Washington but distance him from poor voters. He studied at Brown University and Harvard in the United States and then worked for Nicaragua's central bank. During the civil war, he was an investment banker in the United States and set up a financial consultancy in Miami. Back in Nicaragua, he was foreign minister, then finance minister, in Liberal Party governments. His answer to criticism that he is a dry, aloof technocrat has been to spice up his election campaign by boogieing with sexy dancers to tunes from pop queens Donna Summer and Shakira. He has been hit by allegations of involvement in a scandal that saw his bank profit by $70 million from the issue of state debt to bail out bankrupt private banks. Montealegre denies any misconduct but critics nickname him "raton" -- thief. -- Jose Rizo (PLC - Constitutional Liberal Party): A portly figure with a shock of thick white hair, 62-year-old Rizo is an old-school ruling Liberal Party leader who critics say is under the thumb of former president Aleman. He made his fortune as a coffee grower, fled when the revolutionary Sandinistas took power in 1979 and then lived in Chile throughout the 1980s. As a child, Rizo battled polio and harbored a secret dream of becoming president, after an aunt predicted that one of the family brood would one day hold the top job. -- Edmundo Jarquin (MRS - Sandinista Renewal Movement) A jovial and articulate economist, Jarquin replaced prominent Sandinista dissident Herty Lewites as candidate when the popular former mayor of Managua died of a heart attack in July. Both were late joiners to a party formed by Sandinistas who split away in the 1990s, saying Ortega was all-controlling and corrupt. The chubby-faced Jarquin, 62, has a beaming smile, but his light-hearted poster slogan of "the ugly guy who wants a beautiful Nicaragua" has fallen flat. He is married to a daughter of former President Violeta Chamorro, who toppled Ortega in the 1990 election.
