
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990                   TAG: 9003071840
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: ABINGDON                                 LENGTH: Medium

NICARAGUAN OBSERVER SAYS VOTE A PROTEST

An intern pastor from Smyth County who was one of the official election observers in Nicaragua said Tuesday that the results stemmed mainly from voter dissatisfaction with the economy and anger over forced military conscription.

The Feb. 25 elections replaced the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega with that of the UNO coalition, a group of 14 diverse smaller parties that probably will not hold together, said Sam Stone, intern pastor at Attoway-Kimberling Lutheran Parish in Marion.

Stone was one of 50 pastors invited to be observers through the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization.

Stone admitted that he had expected and hoped for a Sandinista victory. He said he got the impression that many Nicaraguans voted for the UNO slate as a protest against current conditions, with no idea that it would actually win.

He blamed those conditions on the U.S.-backed Contra war. "The Sandinistas never really had a chance to govern Nicaragua. The whole time they were in power was a time of war, so we don't know what they would have accomplished."

They did establish private land ownership after overthrowing the Samoza dictatorship in 1979, he said, and will try to preserve that when the new regime takes power in late April.

Stone was an observer at an election precinct in a frontier community called Lisawe, inside a one-room schoolhouse with a thatched roof and dirt floor. He said people lined up to vote from 5 a.m. until midnight, despite a drenching rain during part of the day.

At night, the dark voting booths were illuminated by Coca-Cola bottles filled with kerosene and lighted cloth wicks, he said.

"The people were very uptight, very nervous. Many of them were shaking like this when they tried to put their ballots in the box," he said, pantomiming the holding of a piece of paper in two trembling hands.

"It was for me, I guess, one of the greatest honors I've ever had in my life to be with those people. . . . In this country we're just kind of jaded or bored or whatever it is, and it was exciting to see that kind of democracy in action."

For many of the voters, it was the first piece of paper they had ever held, he said. "The [election] process itself was incredibly free and fair," he said, which he said showed that the U.S. government is wrong in claiming the Ortega regime was totalitarian. "Totalitarian governments just don't do those sorts of things."

by CNB