Presidential candidates should "make a commitment to the people of Nicaragua that goes beyond electoral promises, avoiding both verbal and physical violence," stated the Council of Evangelical Churches (CEPAD), in a letter issued on August 14.

CEPAD has 42 denominations in membership, together representing more than half of the country's Evangelicals and Protestants.

The council's letter was addressed to the three presidential candidates in the elections, which are scheduled for Nov. 4. Besides choosing a new president and vice president, Nicaraguan voters will also elect 90 deputies to the country's national assembly, as well as 20 representatives to the regional Central American parliament.

Although the campaign officially got underway on 18 August, election rallies have been taking place for months, marked by bitter rhetoric and outbreaks of violence.

Polls show former President Daniel Ortega, the candidate of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, enjoying a slim lead over Enrique Bolanos, the current vice president and candidate of the ruling Constitutionalist Liberal Party. Running a distant third is Conservative Party candidate Alberto Saborio.

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The two-page CEPAD letter, signed by the council's president, Jose Alguera, a Nazarene pastor, claimed that Protestants and Evangelicals here were "extremely concerned" about "the lack of employment in the country, banks going bankrupt to the benefit of a few, the astronomical salaries of some public functionaries, the polarization of principal state institutions, and the situation of hunger" in several drought-plagued regions ...