Former President Jimmy Carter tried Tuesday to defuse a possible election crisis in Nicaragua after Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega refused to accept defeat, alleging fraud in the count.
With more than half of the ballots counted, official results pointed to a big victory for right-wing lawyer Arnoldo Aleman, who had 48 percent of the vote and launched into celebrations as he called on the Sandinistas to accept the voters’ verdict.
But Ortega, who headed Nicaragua’s leftist revolutionary government in 1979-90, told reporters his supporters had found “serious irregularities” and “fraudulent attitudes” in the vote and said he could not accept the result without a recount. The tally showed he had 39 percent.
Carter said he met with Ortega, Aleman, President Violeta Chamorro and Dr. Rosa Marina Zelaya, president of the Supreme Electoral Council, “in an effort to expedite the conclusion of the Nicaraguan election.”
