BY FRANCES ROBLES

 MANAGUA -- Former President Daniel Ortega's hopes for a comeback took a serious blow Wednesday when elections officials issued a ruling that made it more likely that he'd face a single opponent.

 The Supreme Electoral Council said Wednesday that the Conservative Party's own rules do not allow it to nominate a new candidate to replace Noel Vidaurre, who took himself out of the race Tuesday after saying he had been pressured by the United States.

 Vidaurre's elimination as a candidate and the council's decision is trouble for Ortega. Vidaurre would likely have split the anti-Ortega vote, improving the chances for former president and leftist Sandinista leader.

 Recent polls have shown Ortega leading the race despite having only about 37 percent support. Enrique Bolaños, the Liberal Party candidate, is second with 30 percent, and Vidaurre was third.

 The sudden development benefits the Bush administration, whose diplomats and members of Congress had for months pressured Vidaurre, the last-place candidate, to step aside in order to prevent a Sandinista win.

 Last month, high-ranking U.S. State Department official Lino Gutiérrez criticized Ortega during a speech here and used the trip to nudge Vidaurre into an alliance with the Liberals, Vidaurre said.

 The Sandinistas took power after a 1979 revolution ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza. Ortega was president from 1984 to 1990, while a war with U.S.-backed rebels raged in an attempt to oust his government.

 ``At meetings with congressmen and with Lino Gutiérrez, they always spoke of the necessity of uniting the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party to beat Daniel Ortega. I told them it wasn't possible,'' said Vidaurre, a corporate lawyer. ``The theme is the need to beat Daniel Ortega, not to better Nicaragua and install an honest, transparent government.''

 He consistently refused to step down.

 But then Vidaurre decided to drop out, after he and his party leadership couldn't agree on whether to make alliances with disgruntled Sandinistas. Now the party is
 scrambling to find a replacement for him, but it may be too late.

 The deadline for nominating a candidate was last month, but the Elections Council allows substitutions until Aug. 7.

 To take advantage of that deadline, Elections Council spokesman Silvio Americo Calderón said the Conservatives would have to follow the rules set in their own charter.

 The party's rules, he said, allow for substitutions only in case of death or incapacitation. Further, they say a candidate has to announce intentions to run months in
 advance -- and undergo the formalities of a convention.

 ``I can say that if they do not present a candidate by Aug. 7, they will be left without a candidate,'' Calderón said.

 Many speculate that without a Conservative candidate, those votes will go to Bolaños, giving him the edge for an easy victory.

 But Ortega supporters and Conservative Party members say those voters would simply stay home on election day.

 Sandinista Party spokesman Silvio Mora said Ortega had no comment.

 U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Kathy Bentley said the embassy had no reaction to Vidaurre's resignation.

 ``It's an internal thing,'' she said. ``We have been really careful during this campaign . . . not to take sides. We did not tell people who to vote for.''

 Whether the U.S. tried to push Vidaurre out of the race, she said: ``I wasn't in those conversations. I know the ambassador met with everybody. I know he said if they were worried about a Sandinista win, then they should unite.''

                                    © 2001