Profiles of Nicaragua's three main presidential candidates

Profiles of Nicaragua's three main presidential candidates

Nicaragua will hold general elections on Sunday to choose the country's president for the 2012-2017 term.

The following are profiles of the three main presidential candidates:

Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), has a solid lead in recent opinion polls with 48 percent of voter support.

Born on Nov. 11, 1945, in a small town in central Nicaragua, Ortega attended law classes at Managua's Central American University in 1962.

He became a member of the FSLN in 1963, and was a member of the party's executive committee from 1964-1967. He was arrested many times in the early 1960s before fleeing to Cuba in 1974. He later returned to Nicaragua secretly. He was elected secretary-general of the FSLN in July 1991.

Ortega was elected president of Nicaragua in 1984, but was voted out of power in 1990. His renewed attempts to gain re-election in 1996 and 2001 all failed and it was not until 2006 that he was elected again with about 38 percent of the vote.

During his election campaign, Ortega promised to fight hunger, endemic poverty and Nicaragua's high rate of illiteracy.

He married poetess Rosario Murillo in 1979 and the couple have eight children.

Fabio Gadea, who turns 80 on Wednesday, is a candidate of the Independent Liberal Alliance (PLI) and is running second in opinion polls with 30 percent of support.

Born on Nov. 9, 1931, in the city of Ocotal in Nicaragua's northern most province of Nueva Segovia, Gadea is a radio journalist and businessman, and represents the Nicaraguan right-wing opposition.

He has twice been a member of the Central American Parliament in 2004-2005 and again since 2007, and campaigned on promises to fight corruption.

Gadea has also proposed to reduce the number of Congress members to 62 from 90, and cut the number of Supreme Court magistrates to six from 16 in a bid to save budget expenses.

Gadea, who has said he would not seek re-election if he was relected, is father-in-law of the 3rd presidential candidate Arnoldo Aleman.

Nicaragua's former president Arnoldo Aleman is also seeking re-election as a candidate of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), but opinion polls are only giving him about 10 percent of support.

Born on Jan. 23, 1946 in the Nicaraguan capital Managua, Aleman is a lawyer, and he was an officer during the Somoza government. In 1980 he was temporarily arrested by the Sandanista junta before taking up residence in the United States.

He returned to Nicaragua in 1988 and immediately got involved in politics. He was elected Mayor of Managua in 1990 and president for 1997-2002.

In 2002, Aleman was formally charged with corruption and money-laundering and served prison time under house arrest due to health problems, but his 20-year sentence was overturned in 2009.

Aleman said in his campaign that he wants to return the rule of law and democracy to Nicaragua and will strive to create one million new jobs.

There are more than 3.4 million eligible voters in the country. On Sunday, voters will cast their ballots for president, vice-president, 90 deputies to Nicaragua's Congress and 20 to the Central American Parliament.

Polls will open at 7:00 Sunday (1300 GMT) and close at 18:00 (0000 GMT Monday).

Editor: Yang Lina

English.news.cn   2011-11-06 13:06:51 FeedbackPrintRSS
MANAGUA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua)