Nicaragua to review disputed mayoral election

  MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Nicaragua's election council agreed Wednesday to a local review of the Managua mayoral election results, but opposition party members who claimed fraud in the balloting demanded that international observers be present.  The race for mayor of Nicaragua's capital was the most closely watched of 146 municipal elections considered a test for President Daniel Ortega, a leftist who has been fiercely critical of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush while building close ties to Venezuela, Russia and Iran. Ortega's Sandinistas won the most mayoralties in Sunday's elections. But the opposition Constitutionalist Liberal Party, or PLC, claims there was widespread fraud and has demanded an international review. Election council president Robert Rivas told foreign diplomats Wednesday that the Sandinistas and the PLC would be invited to review ballot tally sheets in the Managua election, according to a statement from his office.  He said he would ask prosecutors to investigate news media reports that ballots and other election material were found in a city garbage bin. Local media showed photographs and video Wednesday of the partially burned election material.
PLC spokesman Leonel Teller rejected Rivas' offer, saying it fell short of opposition demands that international observers be present at any review. He also insisted that all the municipal elections should be reviewed «because there was generalized fraud.  Official results indicate former world boxing champion and Sandinista candidate Alexis Arguello won the Managua election, defeating Eduardo Montealegre, a former finance minister who narrowly lost the 2006 presidential race.  Ortega's government has been criticized for refusing to allow observers from the Organization of American States or a prominent local monitoring group at the elections. Ortega has said he rejected the observers «because they are financed by outside powers» and he has dismissed fraud allegations.  The vote followed a bitter campaign marked by violent confrontations between Sandinistas and opposition supporters. Ortega returned to power nearly two decades after leading a Marxist government that fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels. He has come under fire for barring two opposition parties from fielding mayoral candidates and for police raids against non-governmental organizations critical of his administration.  The U.S. State Department has expressed concern about the fraud allegations and the tense atmosphere during the campaign. OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza has pointedly noted that the presence of international observers would have been helpful in resolving the elections dispute.