MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AFP) — Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega looks to be heading for an easy re-election to a fourth term today, with his wife as his running mate.

Surveys credit the pair with more than 60 per cent voter support for today’s balloting, far ahead of their rivals.

But critics inside and outside the country are calling foul over tactics that have sidelined the opposition and restricted foreign scrutiny.

“The United States has repeatedly stated its serious concern about the shrinking democratic space and the lack of rule of law in Nicaragua,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

“A democratic election is not defined on election day only,” he added. “It is a long process and it is the process that matters.”

Gaspard Estrada of the Paris Institute of Political Studies agreed.

“This election is organised in the worst conditions possible,” he said. “Nicaragua is a democracy without democrats.”

Opposition groups, are calling the elections a “farce” after a court order replaced the head of a key party with an Ortega-linked figure.

They are urging a boycott of the vote, which will also choose 90 lawmakers and 20 representatives in congress.

That will focus attention on turnout figures, with a Nicaraguan survey firm, M&R, predicting abstention will be around 25 per cent, in line with previous elections.

One opposition leader, Violeta Granera, told reporters on Thursday that “we are going to document with photos, videos and citizen complaints the population’s rejection” of the vote.

But even many detractors acknowledge the broad public support for Ortega, a 70-year-old former Marxist rebel who first took the presidency in 1985, after the country’s bloody, left-wing revolution against a dictatorial dynasty.

After losing re-election, he spent 17 years agitating in opposition before finally making his comeback in 2006 and winning another new term in 2011.

His latest long stint at the helm has seen the country rack up strong economic growth, partly fueled by nearly $5 billion in credit and investment from Venezuela, a key ally now in crisis.

Ortega developed social programmes that have greatly reduced the number of poor – an important feat in what is still one of the poorest nations in the Americas. That earned him undying backing from much of the population.

But he has pulled back on his public appearances in recent years. Instead his wife, Rosario Murillo, the government’s chief spokesperson who is always wearing colourful clothes and jewellery, has become the face of the administration.

Her daily broadcasts on state media, delivered in a big-sister tone, espouse national unity and the government’s dedication to the people.