President Daniel Ortega appeared poised Sunday for re-election to a controversial third term as polls opened in Nicaragua pitting the former Sandinista rebel leader against a weakened opposition.
Election monitors from the Organisation of American States regional bloc indicated that early voting was calm. Small groups of anti-Ortega activists burned tires, but no major incidents of violence were reported.
At least 15 protesters and two policemen were injured Saturday when supporters of Ortega and his main rival Fabio Gadea clashed in the town of Sebaco, 55 miles (90 kilometres) from the capital Managua.
Ortega, who won a second five-year term in 2006, has presided over a period of strong economic growth in Central America's largest and poorest nation, but opponents fear his lengthening tenure is becoming increasingly dictatorial.
Tension has risen in Nicaragua since a Supreme Court ruling in November 2009 cleared the way for the 65-year-old former revolutionary to seek re-election to a third term. Consecutive re-elections were supposedly banned.
Ortega, who was first elected president of the nation of almost six million back in 1984, has been a central figure since leading a Marxist guerrilla movement to oust dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
US president Ronald Reagan accused the Sandinista National Liberation Front of fostering revolutionary movements in the region and Ortega was voted out of power in 1990 after a civil war against US-backed Contra rebels.
But Ortega, who had two unsuccessful bids for the presidency in 1996 and 2001, modified his message and crucially reconciled with Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, a key figure in the staunchly Roman Catholic nation.
Since 2006, Nicaragua's economy has enjoyed steady growth and exports have doubled. Ortega is expected to benefit from this relative boom and win an easy first round election victory.
In pre-election polls, the harsh US critic and staunch ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was polling at around 48 percent compared to around 30 percent for his closest rival, 79-year-old radio host Fabio Gadea.
Gadea stands on an anti-corruption ticket, while another contender for the country's highest office, former president Arnoldo Aleman, has fought off corruption allegations and has been polling a distant third.
With Ortega so comfortably in front in the presidential race, his four right-wing rivals have focused on Congress, where 90 seats are up for grabs.
Ortega, who says he is continuing the 1980s revolution, still enjoys solid support in rural and marginalized areas of Nicaragua, where almost half of the population live in poverty.
Opponents criticise his bid to stay in power as well as the aid he has received from Chavez - estimated at over $1.6 billion since 2007 - which has propped up popular social programs, including for subsidised housing.
Despite his ties to the leftist firebrand, Ortega has succeeded in wooing investors, with Nicaragua seen as a relatively safe haven alongside some of the world's most violent nations, like neighbouring Honduras or El Salvador.
Ortega also maintains a free trade deal with the United States, despite his anti-imperialist discourse and links to Washington enemies such as Iran.