MANAGUA -- (AP) -- Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega appears to lead in his campaign to recapture Nicaragua's presidency, according to a poll released Friday, and may be close to the votes needed to a first-round victory.

 The poll by the company Borges & Associates showed Ortega favored by 34.1 percent of voters.

 Enrique Bolaños of the governing Constitutionalist Liberal Party followed with 28.8 percent and Noel Vidaurre of the Conservative Party had 13.6 percent.

 An extreme swing in the 3-percentage-point margin of error would put Bolanos ahead. But earlier polls by Borges and by CID-Gallup also showed Ortega with similar leads of 5 to 8 percentage points.

 Undecided voters accounted for 23.5 percent of the poll.

 Because of recent modifications to Nicaragua's electoral system, a presidential candidate can avoid a runoff with just 35 percent of the vote if he leads his closest
 challenger by at least 5 percent in the Nov. 4 election.

 Poll operator Víctor Borges said 16.5 percent of those polled said they would not vote for any party.

 The poll showed that Ortega was the best known of the candidates -- recognized by 97 percent of those polled -- but also the most disliked, with a 50 percent disapproval rating.

 The Sandinista National Liberation Front overthrew the Somoza family dictatorship in 1979.

 The party's Marxist bent eventually prompted a civil war, with the United States backing rebels.

 It ended with the Sandinistas' electoral loss in 1990.

                                   © 2001