The United States ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, said on Monday that he will keep a close eye on a possible second round that could follow the country's Nov. 5 general elections.

Trivelli said that the most recent polls show that Daniel Ortega, from the Sandinista National Liberation Front, will not win the elections in the first round, and that Eduardo Montealegre, of the Nicaraguan Liberal Party-Conservative Party coalition, is five percentage points behind Ortega.

Under Nicaraguan electoral law, to win the presidency in one round, a candidate must win at least 35 percent of the votes, by at least a five-point margin.

"Polls say that, most likely, there will be a second round of the presidential vote, as Montealegre is now very close to Ortega in polls, and there are five presidential candidates," Trivelli told media.

The most important thing for the United States is that the elections are transparent, legal and just.

Last week more than 1,000 U.S. citizens and nearly 30 U.S. non-governmental organizations signed a statement asking Trivelli and other U.S. diplomats to stop interfering in Nicaragua's election.

Both Trivelli and visiting U.S. Congressman Dan Burton, have tried to unite Nicaragua's right-wing parties to help Montealegre win. Ortega opposed the right-wing U.S. government in the 1980s.

In separate statements on Monday, Montealegre said that he was neither the U.S.'s nor Trivelli's candidate, following statements by rival right-wing party, the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, describing him as the U.S. State Department candidate.

Source: Xinhua