2006 Nicaraguan general election

Nicaragua will hold a general election on 5 November 2006. The country's voters will go to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and 92 members of the National Assembly, both of which will serve five-year terms.

Presidential candidates

• Eduardo Montealegre, Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (Alianza Liberal Nicaragüense, ALN-PC), a spin-off of the Constitutional Liberal Party, is an alliance of other liberal parties and the Conservative Party of Nicaragua (Partido Conservador, PC). His running mate is Fabricio Cajina.
• José Rizo Castellón, Constitutional Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Constitucionalista, PLC); vice-presidential running mate José Antonio Alvarado.
• Daniel Ortega Saavedra, Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN). Ortega's vice-presidential candidate is Jaime Morales Carazo, a former leader of the Contras, the armed opponents of the Sandinista goverment in the 80's.
• Edén Pastora, Alternative for Change (Alternativa por el Cambio, AC). His running mate is Mercedes Tenorio, a Nicaraguan nurse.
• Edmundo Jarquín, Sandinista Renovation Movement (Movimiento Renovador Sandinista, MRS); vice-presidential running mate folk musician Carlos Mejía Godoy. (The MRS's original candidate, Herty Lewites, died of a heart attack on 3 July 2006.[1] Jarquín, his vice-presidential candidate, took his place.)

The election campaign

The campaigning for the 2006 election began early, as the political parties involved formed strategical alliances with other political parties, labor unions and social movements.

• The Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance is formed by dissidents of the Constitutional Liberal Party and the Conservative Party (PC), Alliance for the Republic (APRE), Independent Liberal Party (PLI), Nicaraguan Resistance Party (PRN) and Nicaraguan Party of the Christian Path (CCN).
• The Constitutional Liberal Party is in alliance with the Worker's Permanent Congress (CPT), a civil organisation formed around several smaller parties, labor unions and political movements.
• The Sandinista National Liberation Front alliance is called "Unida, Nicaragua Triunfa", "United, Nicaragua Wins", and is formed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka (YATAMA, indigenous party from Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast), Christian Democratic Union (UDC), Christian Unity Movement (MUC), Popular Conservative Alliance (APC) and a few smaller organisations of dissidents from the Liberal and Conservative Party and a fraction of members from the Nicaraguan Resistance Party.
• Alternative for Change, formerly known as the political movement "Christian Alternative" was founded by dissidents from the Nicaraguan Party of the Christian Path (CCN).
• The Sandinista Renovation Movement alliance, also known as the Herty 2006 Alliance in allusion to Herty Lewites, the alliance original presidental candidate, runs in this election together with the Nicaraguan Social Christian Party (PSC), Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN), Nicaraguan Green Party (ecologists), Party for Citizen Action (PAC) and other minor social and political movements.

Despite winning the 2001 elections, the Constitutional Liberal Party is currently in opposition and is together with the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance the two right-wing parties in this election. The representatives of the left are the Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Sandinista Renovation Movement. This is the first time since the elections of 1990 that the right parties don't run together in a wide coalition of anti-sandinista parties. This could benefit the FSLN, since they only need 40% of the votes or at least a 35% of the total votes with a minimum distance of 5% from second place to win the elections in the first round, according to the new legislation modified in the years 1995 and 2000. If a second round is needed, the two parties with most votes will run against each other.

Election Poll Results

Borge y Asociados - September 13, 2006 and August 5, 2006

Party		Candidate	September 2006	August 2006	Last election
	FSLN	Daniel Ortega Saavedra	26.8%	31.4%	42.3%
	ALN-PC	Eduardo Montealegre	23.9%	29.1%	N/A
	MRS	Edmundo Jarquín	19.1%	15.2%	N/A
	PLC	José Rizo Castellón	16.4%	15.7%	56.3%
	AC	Edén Pastora	0.5%	1.1%	N/A

M & R Consultores - August 10, 2006

Party		Candidate	August 2006	Last election
	FSLN	Daniel Ortega Saavedra	34.9%	42.3%
	ALN-PC	Eduardo Montealegre	27.2%	N/A
	MRS	Edmundo Jarquín	21.6%	N/A
	PLC	José Rizo Castellón	14.9%	56.3%
	AC	Edén Pastora	1.4%	N/A