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Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Nicaraguans Disappointed with Bolaños
- Enrique Bolaños begins the last year of his tenure with low numbers in Nicaragua, according to a poll by CID-Gallup published in La Prensa. 50 per cent of respondents rate the president's performance as bad or very bad.
In 2001, Bolaños won the presidential election with 56.3 per cent of the vote as the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) candidate. Bolaños lost the support of the PLC in January 2002, when his government decided to take legal action against former president Arnoldo Alemán. The former head of state—who governed the country from 1997 to 2002—was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud, money laundering and embezzlement.
In May 2004, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua agreed to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States. The Dominican Republic followed suit in August. The agreement would reduce or eliminate taxes and tariffs on imports.
On Jun. 23, Bolaños expressed dissatisfaction with PLC and Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) lawmakers, who have failed to authorize a series of infrastructure projects valued at $1.7 billion U.S. The president declared, "When I won the election, we had no funds. Now I want to build bridges, schools, hospitals and roads, but I can't because the Assembly will not approve these bills."
The next presidential election is scheduled for Nov. 5. Former PLC member and presidency secretary Eduardo Montealegre, former president Daniel Ortega of the FSLN, former Managua mayor Herty Lewites of the Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS), and former vice-president José Rizo of the PLC are the main contenders.
Polling Data
How would you rate the performance of Enrique Bolaños as president?
Very good / Good | 22% |
Average | 27% |
Bad / Very bad | 50% |
Source: CID-Gallup / La Prensa
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,180 Nicaraguan adults, conducted from Jun. 16 to Jun. 23, 2006. Margin of error is 2.8 per cent.