Following a surprise ruling Monday by high court magistrates, Nicaragua might have gained license to enter a world of political pain akin to that being experienced in nearby Honduras.

The decision by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court to strike down a constitutional ban on re-election plays into the hand of President Daniel Ortega, seeking to run for a second term in 2011, but is driving a wedge into an already divided nation.

Carlos Tunnermann, of the Movement for Nicaragua, told the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa that the Constitutional Chamber has done something "not in its power to do, reforming the constitution."

Just as Sandinista supporters took to the streets to cheer on the court's decision, civic organizations began calling on Ortega's detractors to protest against the move that opens the way to Ortega's re-election candidacy.

The ruling enables Ortega to run without having to seek the legislature's support for constitution reform or to hold a national referendum on the issue, Reuters reported.

Similar Central American sagas have ended with presidents rousted from bed and forced into exile, without mentioning any names (Manuel Zelayan of Honduras).

Ortega wouldn't be the first. Other Latin American leaders, from Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez to Colombia's conservative leader Alvaro Uribe, have successfully secured reforms allowing their re-election.

Nicaragua, whose streets filled with violence for weeks after allegations that the Sandinistas rigged last November's municipal elections, will not sit quietly during this controversy over the future of its government's top post.

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