The Carter Center, a non-government observer group run by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, will observe Nicaragua's Nov. 5 elections, Carter Center's Chief of Mission Jaime Aparicio said on Thursday.

Carter, who will arrive on Saturday, will work with the mission, said Aparcio, adding that the Center would back clean elections and report any irregularities.

In previous visits to the nation, Carter told the media that "foreign interference does not do Nicaraguan democracy any good."

The Organization of American States (OAS) has twice condemned what it described as "foreign interference" in presidential elections.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez has told the Nicaraguan press that if Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista National Liberation Front party candidate, were to win, it would put U.S. investments in Nicaragua at risk.

U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli told media that a vote for the Liberal Constitutionalist Party's candidate was effectively a vote for Ortega.

Trivelli had previously tried to form a coalition that included all the country's right-wing parties in a bid to strengthen the anti-Ortega vote.

This week, U.S. legislators made a public call to ban Nicaraguan remittances if Ortega wins.

The OAS has more than 200 observers at the elections, and will publish three reports on election day. The European Union has 120 observers and will publish its report, the Monday after the election.

Altogether there are more than 1,000 observers for the elections.

Also on Thursday, the Supreme Electoral Council told media that around 1,000 reporters are covering the elections: 625 locals and 350 from overseas, the largest ever reporting contingent.

Thursday is the first day of the three-day electoral campaigning blackout, designed to give voters time to think about their candidates' policies.

Source: Xinhua