Ortega expected to hold power in Nicaragua

Eleven years after he lost power in an election, former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega ran a strong chance to regain the presidency in elections in Nicaragua today despite US efforts to dent his campaign.

Former US President Jimmy Carter joined thousands of local and foreign poll watchers scattered across Nicaragua to monitor the voting in a country where political passions still run high in the wake of a civil war that ended in 1990.

Once a socialist revolutionary who wore olive green uniforms, Ortega, 55, campaigned in pink shirts and with the slogan ‘‘the path of love.’’