Sunday 07 November 2021
Clear exit in Nicaragua
President eliminates opponents before election
Before the presidential and parliamentary elections in Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega has opponents from the opposition locked up. There is no doubt about his victory even before the vote. The US government calls the election a “farce”. It serves to “keep the dictator in power”.
Presidential and parliamentary elections have taken place in Nicaragua under strict security precautions. A victory for incumbent Daniel Ortega in the election of the head of state was considered certain after the president, who has ruled for 14 years, had opposition politicians, journalists and activists locked up in recent months. Instead of promising opponents, five largely unknown candidates competed against the 75-year-old Ortega.
The voter turnout will be of particular interest in order to be able to anticipate the actual support for Ortega. There is no compulsory voting in the Central American country with its 6.5 million inhabitants. The weakened opposition had called for a boycott of the elections, which were monitored by 30,000 security forces. International observers, like most international media, were not allowed.
“It’s not that it’s bad (…). It’s terrible: You can’t talk, otherwise they’ll put you in jail,” said a 78-year-old Nicaraguan named José. “Why should I vote?”
Two thirds would have voted for members of the opposition
Around two thirds of all respondents had recently told the polling institute Cid-Gallup that they would have voted for one of the jailed opposition candidates had they been allowed to vote. Journalist Cristiana Chamorro was one of the most promising challengers to the incumbent head of state. The daughter of the former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro has been under house arrest since the beginning of June and was excluded from the election.
Chamorro and six other opposition presidential candidates were arrested on the basis of a law passed by parliament in December to facilitate the exclusion of opposition candidates from elections. The opposition politicians were accused of money laundering, high treason or attacks on Nicaragua’s sovereignty. Congress, like the judiciary and electoral authorities, is controlled by allies of the president.
Ortega was already president in the 1980s, having previously contributed to the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 as commander of the guerrilla FSLN. In 1990 Ortega was voted out of office. In 2007 he was elected to the highest office again.
Sanctions against Ortega’s government
Critics accuse Ortega of having developed an increasingly authoritarian and repressive style of government over the years. He had constitutional regulations limiting the presidential terms of office overturned. Mass protests against Ortega in 2018 were violently suppressed by the security forces, killing more than 300 people.
The EU and the US imposed sanctions on Ortega and his government. Before the vote on Sunday, the US and the EU increased pressure on Ortega. The US Congress passed a law on Wednesday which, among other things, provides for tightening sanctions against its government.
The US government called the election a “farce”, the EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell called it a “fake” election. It’s all about “keeping the dictator Ortega in power,” said Borrell. He announced that Brussels would not recognize the election result. Ortega, whose most important allies include Venezuela, Cuba and Russia, accuses the US and the EU of “meddling” in his country’s internal affairs.