{"id":30127,"date":"2016-11-08T03:37:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T03:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nicaragua-daniel-ortega-storms-to-landslide\/"},"modified":"2016-11-08T03:37:16","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T03:37:16","slug":"nicaragua-daniel-ortega-storms-to-landslide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nicaragua-daniel-ortega-storms-to-landslide\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega storms to landslide victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Former Sandinista guerrilla wins with 72 percent of the vote as opposition vows to “fight” the outcome.}<\/p>\n

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has overwhelmingly won re-election to a third consecutive term as voters cheered in the streets and overlooked criticism that he is installing a family dynasty.<\/p>\n

Ortega, 71, ran with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his vice-presidential candidate in a race that pitted him against five lesser-known candidates after court rulings weakened the opposition.<\/p>\n

The Reuters news agency reported on Monday that Ortega secured 72.1 percent of votes citing Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council.<\/p>\n

The announcement sent hundreds of Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front party supporters out into the streets of the capital to celebrate.<\/p>\n

The opposition, which had urged people to boycott the election, disputed that claim, contending “more than 70 percent” of voters did not cast ballots.<\/p>\n

Ana Margarita Vigil, a leader from the Broad Front for Democracy, told Al Jazeera the opposition rejected the results and would “fight” the outcome.<\/p>\n

“The people of Nicaragua have said ‘no’ to this farce and we are committed to fight until we have new, free, fair and competitive elections.”<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from the capital, Managua, said there was a real fear among some Nicaraguans that Ortega was trying to create a political dynasty.<\/p>\n

“For many there is a real concern that history may be repeating itself. Nicaragua fought a revolution that ended a political dynasty that lasted nearly 50 years.<\/p>\n

“Murillo’s election as vice president legitimises her already dominant position in the government and allows her to take over if and when the 70-year-old cannot complete his mandate,” Newman said.<\/p>\n

However, Ortega will face an increasingly difficult regional landscape in his new term.<\/p>\n

Leftist ally Venezuela is overwhelmed by an economic crisis and Cuba is normalising relations with the United States.<\/p>\n

The US Congress is also working on legislation to require the US government to oppose loans to Nicaragua from international lending institutions.<\/p>\n

“The lack of Venezuelan support, the international price of oil, the price of our exports, and the possibility that [US legislation passes] make it a more complicated outlook for Ortega in the next term,” Oscar Rene Vargas, a sociologist and economist at Central American University, told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

\"Supporters<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Former Sandinista guerrilla wins with 72 percent of the vote as opposition vows to “fight” the outcome.} Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has overwhelmingly won re-election to a third consecutive term as voters cheered in the streets and overlooked criticism that he is installing a family dynasty. Ortega, 71, ran with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30127"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30127"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}