(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Fewer than one-in-five Nicaraguan adults are satisfied with the performance of Daniel Ortega, according to a poll by M&R. 18.4 per cent of respondents qualify the president’s tenure as good or very good, practically unchanged since last December.

In November 2006, Ortega—a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)—won the presidential election with 37.99 per cent of all cast ballots. Presidential candidates in Nicaragua are not compelled to garner more than 50 per cent of the vote in order to win the election.

Ortega governed from 1985 to 1990, but was a losing candidate in the 1990, 1996 and 2001 ballots. In January 2007, he was sworn in for a five-year term.

Earlier this month, Nicaragua became the first country to side with Russia in its acknowledgement of the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev had endorsed the independence of the two regions on Aug. 26, after an armed conflict erupted between Russian and Georgian forces in South Ossetia.

Ortega said that Nicaragua “recognizes the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia” and went on to condemn the “political hegemonies” that, according to him, are “trying to surround Russia” and seeking to “build a military fence against Russia.”