MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Overcoming a concerted U.S. drive to thwart his comeback, former Marxist revolutionary Daniel Ortega appeared Monday to be headed to a clear victory in Nicaraguan presidential elections.
Fireworks punctuated the sky, and thousands of supporters whizzed through Managua's streets in pickup trucks and motorcycles shouting "Long live El Comandante!" after preliminary results released before dawn Monday gave Ortega a 7-point lead over his closest rival in the five-way race.
Fans waved a sea of Sandinista flags -- some in the traditional red-and-black stripe of Ortega's 1979 revolution that toppled the corrupt Somoza dynasty, others in pink, the campaign color he adopted to show he'd softened his Cold War ideology.
"It is God's miracle. Our savior has returned," said Fernanda Lopez, 76, tears of joy streaming down her face.
Loudspeakers in the slums blasted Ortega's campaign song, a Spanish-language version of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance," which replaced the old Sandinista anthem, "Let's fight the Yankee/enemy of humanity."
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Ortega, who turns 61 Saturday, would be the seventh leftist leader to win office in recent years in a Latin America increasingly at odd with U.S. dictates.
The balding, mustachioed leftist survived a civil war against U.S.-backed rebels and a devastating U.S. economic blockade in the 1980s.
With 40 percent of votes counted, Ortega had captured 40.1 percent of the vote, well over the 35 percent and five-point lead over his runner-up that he needed to win on the first round.
Though Bush administration officials had warned they might yank millions of dollars in vital aid if Ortega won, U.S.-backed candidate Eduardo Montealegre, a conservative, Harvard-educated banker, garnered only 32.7 percent of ballots.
It was Ortega's third consecutive re-election attempt since he was voted out of the presidency in 1990.
Ortega remained holed up in his sprawling Managua compound Monday as tallying continued. "We are awaiting the results and final conclusions of the Supreme Electoral Council with great respect, prudence and patience," said a written statement from his wife and campaign manager, the poet Rosario Murillo. Montealegre, meanwhile, refused to immediately concede. "This is a battle to transform Nicaragua and it's not over until the last vote is counted," he said Monday morning.
Echoing most opposition candidates, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement that it was too soon to "make an overall judgment on the fairness and transparency of the process."
But initial reports from international observers, including the Carter Center of former President Carter, pronounced the vote largely clean. Two quick counts from respected Nicaraguan groups also upheld Ortega's victory.
