Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista party claimed victory on Monday in nationwide municipal elections, but rival parties said the early returns were misleading and the US government expressed concern about the vote.
The mayoral elections were seen as a referendum on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, whose government has come under fire for barring two opposition parties from fielding mayoral candidates and for police raids against non-governmental organizations.
Sandinistas and opposition supporters engaged in scattered rock fights in Managua, and police spokeswoman Vilma Reyes said four people were injured, including two teenagers hit by bullets.
The country’s Supreme Electoral Council said the Sandinistas were leading in 94 of the 146 mayoral races nationwide with a majority of votes counted. No percentage of votes counted was given, and results from six municipalities had not yet been calculated.
With 69 percent of votes counted in the race for mayor of Managua, former boxing champion and Sandinista candidate Alexis Arguello led with 51 percent while former Finance Minister Eduardo Montealegre had 47 percent for the Liberal Constitutional Party.
Sandinista congressional leader Edwin Castro said the party’s own quick count showed it had won in Managua and in 95 to 100 other municipalities, though he acknowledged apparent losses in provincial cities such as Jinotega and Granada.
Montealegre, who lost the 2006 presidential election to Ortega, said he was winning in the capital, and his party said it had won about 60 mayoral races. Montealegre said horn-honking Sandinista car caravans that appeared on Managua streets on Monday were “celebrating their own defeat.”
The nationwide vote was the first major electoral test for Ortega since he returned to power nearly two decades after leading a Marxist government that fought US-backed Contra rebels.
Ortega has regularly criticized Washington’s foreign policy and built strong ties with Cuba, Venezuela, Russia and Iran.
Opposition leaders have criticized the government for failing to invite observers from the Organization of American States and refusing to accredit the local group Ethics and Transparency, which has monitored past elections.
Ortega said he rejected the observers “because they are financed by outside powers” and accused local news media of conducting “an open campaign” against Arguello.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said there were reports of “widespread irregularities taking place at voting stations throughout the country” and said the refusal to permit outside observers has made it tough to “properly assess the conduct of the elections.”
“We also note that political conditions that existed during the campaign were not conducive to free and fair elections,” he said.
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