(6 Nov 2006)
1. Various shots of street scenes
2. Wide shot of street with large sign reading: "Vote to work" and a picture of Daniel Ortega
3. Various shots of people getting onto a bus and waiting for buses
4. Various shots of people people riding past on pony and cart
5. Mid shot of news conference by "Civic Group of Ethics and Transparency"
6. Close-up of sign reading, (Spanish): "Ethic and transparency group"
7. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Pablo Ayon, President of Civic Group of Ethics and Transparency:
"PLC, Constitutional Liberal Party has obtained 24.15 per cent, Liberation National Sandinista 38.49 per cent, and Liberal Alliance has obtained 29.52 per cent."
8. Various shots of police on the street
9. Woman at fruit stall in market
10. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Vox Pop, Voter:
"It will be what God wishes. If he wants Daniel (Ortega) it will be so. I hope God can help him to govern."
11. Various of market
STORYLINE:
Daniel Ortega appeared to be heading back to the presidency 16 years after a US-backed rebellion helped oust him, as partial results and the country's top electoral watchdog indicated he had easily defeated four opponents.
Pablo Ayon, President of the Civic Group for Ethics and Transparency, announced the preliminary voting results at a news conference in Managua on Monday.
The Sandinista leader's victory in Sunday's election, if confirmed by final results, would expand the club of leftist Latin rulers including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who has tried to help his Nicaraguan ally by shipping cheap oil to the energy-starved nation.
Ortega, who led Nicaragua from 1985-1990, repeatedly has said he no longer is the Marxist revolutionary who fought US-backed Contra rebels in a war that left 30,000 dead and the economy in shambles.
But while he has toned down his leftist rhetoric and pledged to continue free-trade policies, the United States remains openly wary of its former Cold War foe.
Washington has threatened to withhold aid to the nation, fearing a return to the socialist economic policies of the 1980s.
The race has generated intense international interest, including a visit by Oliver North, the former White House aide at the heart of the Iran-Contra controversy.
That effort to oust Ortega's Moscow-leaning Sandinista regime created a huge scandal in the United States when it became known that Washington secretly sold arms to Iran and used the money to fund and arm the Contra operation.
A statistical survey of official results, carried out by the Nicaraguan Civic Group for Ethics and Transparency, gave Ortega 38.5 percent to 29.5 percent for the wealthy banker Eduardo Montealegre.
Three others rivals were well behind: Sandinista dissident Edmundo Jarquin, ruling-party candidate Jose Rizo and former Contra rebel Eden Pastora.
To win outright and avoid a run-off, Ortega needs just 35 percent of the vote and a 5-point advantage over his closest opponent.
The vote sampling, known as a quick count, had a margin of error of 1.7 percentage points.
Ortega's four opponents asked the group to carry out the count because they were concerned that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal was controlled by the Sandinistas.
Late Sunday, Ortega's supporters flooded the streets, setting off celebratory fireworks, waving the party's red-and-black flag and swaying to the candidate's campaign song, set to the tune of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."
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