Ortega to run again for Nicaraguan presidency

MANAGUA - Former Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega of the leftist Sandinista party, which fought US-backed rebels when it ruled in the 1980s, is to make a third attempt at regaining the presidency next year.

The Sandinista party, which has made major gains against the right-wing ruling party in local elections, named Ortega its 2006 election candidate late on Saturday at a party meeting.

Ortega last month agreed to support President Enrique Bolanos until his term ends in January 2007 to try to defuse a looming constitutional crisis after Bolanos accused opposition parties of plotting a coup against him.

Yet the Sandinistas hope to return to power after that, with Bolanos weakened by his party's internal feuding and a drive by political rivals to remove him as president amid campaign finance and corruption allegations.

The Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza family dictatorship in a 1979 revolution. But Ortega's Marxist government alienated some sectors of society and clashed with Washington, which backed the Contra rebel uprising against the Sandinistas and imposed an economic embargo.

Ortega lost power in 1990 elections to Violeta Chamorro, the US-backed candidate. He has since run for president twice and lost to right-wing candidates.

The Sandinistas are also drawing optimism from a shift toward the political left elsewhere in Latin America. Leftists have taken power in recent years in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela.

- REUTERS