Ortega defeated in Nicaragua

Christian Century, Dec 5, 2001

Church leaders in Nicaragua said they were pleased that national elections November 4 remained peaceful after voters turned down a former revolutionary's bid to retake power. Former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista National Liberation Front candidate, conceded defeat the next day to the Constitutional Liberal Party's Enrique Bolanos, a former vice president. "It was very democratic," said Gustavo Parajon, a Baptist pastor in Managua and former president of the Nicaraguan Council of Evangelical Churches. "We seem to have finally institutionalized the idea that we can change governments in Nicaragua without having to resort to arms."

Paul Schmitz, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Blue fields, on the remote Caribbean coast, described the vote as "the cleanest elections" he has seen in Nicaragua. "I have to give Daniel Ortega credit," said Schmitz. "He could have called out the masses to protest [against his defeat], and they would have responded. But he accepted his defeat in a very mature, democratic manner."