Enough, Mr. Ortega

The results of the Oct. 20 Nicaraguan elections are official, and Arnoldo Aleman, a conservative, has been declared the new president. So why doesn’t Daniel Ortega concede defeat?

Domestic and foreign poll watchers have called the election imperfect but essentially fair and conclusive. But that doesn’t do it for Ortega, a former president and leader of the leftist Sandinista Party. He has challenged the results, charging fraud, and is calling for demonstrations in the streets of Nicaragua to force a new vote.

But most Nicaraguans are not buying the charges. Imperfections are inevitable in an underdeveloped country, the poll observers point out, and abuses have been attributed to all parties, including the Sandinistas, in the October balloting.

Nicaraguans wonder why Ortega, lacking a legitimate claim to contest the results of the election, is keeping up the clamor. One theory is that the new government may move to take away the houses that Ortega and other leading Sandinistas illegally seized for their personal use when they came to power in 1979. We hope that petty reason is not why Ortega is doing such a tremendous disservice to democracy in Nicaragua. He should rise above the fray and accept defeat, as he did in 1990 when he lost the presidency to Violeta Chamorro.

Instead of deepening the wounds of his troubled country, Ortega should seek a more constructive role. He remains, after all, the leader of the primary opposition party, and as such he has an obligation to play a constructive role. Nicaragua cannot afford reckless divisions.