Nicaragua Opposition Names Chamorro as Its Candidate

The main opposition coalition in Nicaragua on Saturday named Violeta Chamorro, a prominent newspaper publisher whose husband’s assassination helped spark the Sandinista revolution, to run for president against the ruling Sandinista Front in elections next February.

The United National Opposition, an alliance of 14 anti-Sandinista parties, named Independent Liberal Party President Virgilio Godoy as Chamorro’s running mate after nearly nine hours of bitter debate among the coalition’s leaders.

The selection of Chamorro kicks off the opposition campaign for the elections, scheduled for Feb. 25. The Sandinistas have not named a candidate, although President Daniel Ortega is expected to seek reelection.

Chamorro, 60, is the publisher of the opposition daily La Prensa and one of the country’s best-known opposition figures, although she claims to belong to no political party.

Saturday’s meeting followed two days of feverish behind-the-scenes negotiations that reflected both the ideological pluralism and the personal rivalries which mark the UNO, as the coalition is known.

Opposition leaders, including Adan Fletes of the Democratic National Confidence Party, said two other possible candidates had been in the running for the nomination: Godoy and Enrique Bolanos, a conservative businessman known for his outspoken opposition to the Sandinista government.

Several opposition politicians had said Chamorro stood the best chance of nomination because she is a popular public figure and not linked to any of the political parties.

Wife of Slain Publisher

She is the widow of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, the La Prensa publisher whose assassination in 1979 helped spark the national uprising that overthrew strongman Anastasio Somoza and brought the Sandinistas to power.

Under Nicaragua’s electoral law, the UNO coalition was required to name candidates for president and vice president by Sept. 8.

The Sandinista Front must name its candidates by Sept. 13.

Ortega called the elections as part of an agreement with the presidents of Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Under that agreement, Ortega promised to hold free elections and institute democratic reforms, and the other regional leaders agreed to work to dismantle the U.S.-backed Contras, who have been fighting against the Sandinistas since 1981.