MANAGUA: Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council announced late Thursday that candidates backed by leftist President Daniel Ortega won in more than two-thirds of mayoral races in the November 9 election – a result disputed by the conservative opposition.

According to the council, the final authority on vote matters, Sandinista candidates won in 105 of the 146 races in dispute, including the biggest prize, Managua, as well as most of the country's largest cities.

The Managua race was disputed between opposition leader Eduardo Montealegre – who narrowly lost to Ortega in the 2006 presidential vote – and three-time world boxing champion Alexis Arguello for the Sandinistas.

The right-wing Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) won 37 races for mayor, while the smaller right-wing Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) won four.

The announcement, made by Electoral Council president Roberto Rivas, was welcomed with cheering and celebration by thousands of Sandinista supporters who gathered outside his office to hear the announcement.

The results show that Sandinista candidates won in 18 cities their party had not controlled, while conservative parties lost control of 21 cities.

Tension has been rising across the country since the controversial election, with clashes between government supporters and opponents a daily affair.

The conservative opposition is convinced there has been massive fraud.

On Wednesday, opponents of the Sandinistas said they had enough votes in Congress to annul the election – a notion dismissed by Supreme Court Justice Rafael Solis, who said Congress had no such authority.

The opposition has "incontrovertible proof of clumsy, shameless and massive fraud" carried out by the Electoral Council in coordination with the Sandinistas, said former president Arnoldo Aleman, who heads the right-wing Liberal Party.


- AFP/so