Nicaragua's Ortega seen easily winning third straight term - poll

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expected to win re-election by a landslide on Nov. 6, according to a poll published on Tuesday, the last such survey released before the vote. The poll by M&R Consultants showed 69.8 percent of those surveyed planned to vote for Ortega and his leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party, compared with 8.1 percent for right-wing opposition candidate Maximino Rodriguez. Another 15.5 percent of those polled declared themselves independents, or declined to respond, M&R said. Ortega, a 70-year-old former guerrilla leader, first ruled the country in the 1980s and returned to power in 2007 after a fracture in Nicaragua's right-wing parties. Victory on Sunday would give him a third consecutive term in power. After nearly a decade in power, his popularity has remained high due to economic policies and social programs put into place with the aid of allies in Venezuela and Cuba. Support for Ortega has grown in recent weeks. In a previous poll published in September, 65.7 percent of those surveyed planned to vote for the incumbent. [nL1N1BO217] The poll of 2,000 people was conducted between Oct. 26-29 and had a margin of error of 2.24 percent. (Reporting by Ivan Castro; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)