NICARAGUANS REJECTING ORTEGA.

Byline: Larry Rohter The New York Times

Decisively rejecting a bid by the former guerrilla fighters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front to return to power through the ballot box, Nicaraguan voters have instead turned further to the right, electing a candidate who advocates untrammeled free enterprise and a closer relationship with the United States.

Incomplete official returns and informal ballot counts compiled by foreign election observers gave Arnoldo Aleman, a former mayor of Managua who ran under the banner of the Liberal Alliance, a lead of nearly 10 percentage points over his rival, former President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, the Sandinista leader. Though Ortega has yet to concede defeat, Aleman was quick Monday to proclaim himself the winner.

``With full confidence, I can confirm our victory,'' Aleman, a 50-year-old lawyer and coffee grower, said Monday afternoon as his supporters gathered at party headquarters to celebrate their triumph over the revolutionaries who ruled this country for more than a decade. ``We have consolidated democracy in Nicaragua.''

At a news conference on Monday afternoon, however, Ortega challenged that statement, saying that ``at this moment, we cannot recognize the results because we have found a series of anomalies'' in the vote. With Sandinista supporters chanting ``Fraud, fraud!'' Ortega said the ``serious irregularities'' would require a complete recount, but he provided no evidence to support his complaint.

With almost half of the nearly 2 million ballots cast Sunday counted by Monday afternoon, Aleman had more than 48 percent of the vote, enough to spare him the runoff with Ortega he had hoped to avoid. In a demonstration of the importance Nicaraguans attach to the vote, more than 80 percent of all eligible voters took part in the election.