Lincoln National Convertible Securities Fund Misleads
Shareholders While Breaches of Fiduciary Duty Continue

New York July 23, 2001 -- Phillip Goldstein, portfolio manager of
Opportunity Partners L.P., announced today that Lincoln National
Convertible Securities Fund, Inc. ("LNV" or the "Fund"), a
registered closed-end fund managed by Delaware Management
Company, recently issued several misleading press releases that
seek to blame Mr. Goldstein for the Fund's failure to achieve a
quorum at a purported shareholder meeting.  The press releases
issued by the Fund omit the following key facts:

1.On April 27, 2001, a federal district court (I) ruled that
LNV's board of directors breached its fiduciary duty to
shareholders by denying them a fair opportunity to nominate
directors at the 2000 annual meeting and (ii) issued an order
setting aside the 2000 election and ordering the Fund to hold a
fair election.

2.The board has made no attempt to comply with the court order.

3.The board has committed further breaches of fiduciary duty by,
among other things, illegally postponing the 2001 annual meeting
from its originally scheduled date of May 18th to June 22nd.

The meeting purportedly convened on June 22nd is illegal because
the postponement from May 18th was designed to gain a strategic
advantage in a proxy contest between the board and Mr. Goldstein.
In a 1987 decision striking down a similar postponement, the
Delaware Chancery Court stated:  "The business judgment rule . .
 . does not confer any presumption of propriety on the acts of
directors in postponing the annual meeting.  Quite to the
contrary.  When the election machinery appears, at least
facially, to have been manipulated those in charge of the
election have the burden of persuasion to justify their actions."

Prior to the invalid postponement, Mr. Goldstein had purchased a
non-refundable airline ticket to attend the May 18th meeting and
vote his proxies.  However, Mr. Goldstein has declined to endorse
the board's actions by attending the June 22nd meeting or any of
the purported adjournments of that meeting.  Because he has
protested their improper actions, the Fund's management has
disparagingly referred to him as a "professional dissident."  Mr.
Goldstein commented:  "When a serial abuser of shareholders like
Delaware Management calls me a professional dissident I take it
as a compliment."

Mr. Goldstein explained the situation this way: "Basically,
shareholders of LNV have two choices.  They can go to court every
time the board of directors does something illegal or they can
simply refuse to participate in an election that is blatantly
unfair.  Shareholders shouldn't have to file a lawsuit every few
weeks.  The next best thing is to send a strong message to the
board by simply not attending any of their rogue meetings."

Goldstein noted that Delaware Management is notorious for abusing
shareholders of its closed-end funds.  "A few years ago, the
board of another closed-end fund managed by Delaware reneged on a
promise to conduct a self-tender offer," he recalled.  "That
episode generated some very negative comments from investors and
from the press and led to a letter from the SEC admonishing all
closed-end funds to avoid misleading investors in the future."

LNV's July 20th press release urged shareholders "to support the
Fund's dedicated and qualified Directors."  Mr. Goldstein joked
about the board's unintentionally amusing self-endorsement: "I am
confused.  After being found guilty of breaching their fiduciary
duty, shareholders know they are not qualified to be directors of
the Fund.  The directors do seem to be dedicated but primarily to
retaining their positions at all costs including further breaches
of their fiduciary duty.  They have even stooped to outright
lying.  After I merely asked the board for some assurance that
future elections be fairly conducted, they intimated to
shareholders that I had made improper demands.  One director even
claimed to be a shareholder of LNV although he owns no shares."

Mr. Goldstein again called on LNV's board to employ an impartial
referee to monitor future elections.   "I just don't see how a
fair election can occur without an impartial referee," he said.
"Management wants to demonize me but their actions demonstrate
that they are not capable of conducting a fair election.  Without
a monitor they will continue to make the rules, change the rules
and break the rules at will.  Maybe that is the way elections are
conducted in Cuba or Iraq but shareholders in the United States
deserve better."

Opportunity Partners L.P. is a New York-based investment
partnership with assets of $47 million.

Contact: Phillip Goldstein at (914) 747-5262 or oplp@att.net.