1990 Nicaraguan general election

General elections were held in Nicaragua on 25 February 1990.[1] The result was a victory for the National Opposition Union (UNO), whose presidential candidate Violeta Chamorro surprisingly defeated incumbent president Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).[2] Opinion polls leading up to the elections divided along partisan lines, with 10 of 17 polls analyzed in a contemporary study predicting an UNO victory while seven predicted the Sandinistas would retain power.[3][4]

1990 Nicaraguan presidential election

25 February 1990

Candidate Violeta Chamorro Daniel Ortega Party UNO FSLN Popular vote 777,552 579,886 Percentage 54.74% 40.82%

President before election Daniel Ortega FSLN President-elect Violeta Chamorro UNO

Possible explanations include that the Nicaraguan people were disenchanted with the Ortega government and/or calibrated their responses to polls to their perceptions of the pollsters' biases, as well as the fact that already in November 1989, the White House had announced that the economic embargo against Nicaragua would end if Violeta Chamorro won.[5] Also, there had been reports of intimidation from the side of the contras,[6] with a Canadian observer mission claiming that 42 people were killed by the contras in "election violence" in October 1989.[7] This led many commentators to assume that Nicaraguans voted against the Sandinistas out of fear of a continuation of the contra war and economic deprivation.[4]