Nicaraguans lead an international protest against electoral “fraud” in this Sunday’s elections and denounce last-minute arrests
Daniel Ortega came out of retirement this Sunday, but not from his labyrinth. In a new attempt to revalidate himself as head of Nicaragua for the next five years, the controversial president voted in the elections and did not deprive himself of launching a harsh argument against the opponents that he has sent to jail in recent months. The former Sandinista leader, once a hero of the revolution and now a discredited ruler who seeks perpetual power with his wife, Rosario Murillo, boasted of having dismantled a group of “demons” whose objective was to conspire against the country to avoid the elections , “Seize power” and “sow it with death.” Nobody told him that on electoral day it is not elegant and, normally, not legal to do politics.
More than 4.4 million Nicaraguans were summoned to the polls in 3,106 voting centers. From early in the morning, the Supreme Electoral Council urged people to go to the schools. The authorities have “been guaranteeing this exercise in tranquility, peace and harmony, as has been done since the beginning of the opening of these elections,” declared the head of this organization, Brenda Rocha, baptized by Sandinismo as “the smile of the revolution ”after losing a hand in an attack by the ‘contra’ in 1982. Up to 30,000 policemen and soldiers guarded the day.
Like her, judges and former leaders of the movement tried to stir up participation, especially after the opposition in exile demanded abstention as a way to denounce the “fraud.” Not a step back. This is the most democratic government we have ever had, ”a veteran told the AFP agency, proudly showing his ink-stained finger, a sign that he had already voted at his table in the San José Oriental neighborhood. A few meters away, a woman wondered «and why have so many opponents been imprisoned? This is a circus. Thousands of Nicaraguans also responded in different parts of the world, including Spain, Costa Rica and the United States, to the request to demonstrate against the electoral “scam” and to demand international sanctions on Ortega.
“Political violence”
At the time of this report, there was still little attendance figure, which some government media considered “huge.” Two hundred “electoral escorts” and journalists followed the day from the Managua congress center. The independent observatory Urnas Abiertas assured that they were “Sandinista militants” who replaced the international representatives.
Urnas Abierta has detected 1,656 episodes of “political violence” during the campaign, including the imprisonment of all candidates critical of the Daniel Ortega regime; more than 150 detainees, including Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Tamara Dávila and Walter Gómez, candidates who had a substantial voter support. At dawn yesterday, the opposition reported a new wave of arrests, including those of eight politicians disaffected to the regime and two journalists.
Everything makes it predictable that the former commander, 78, will once again be the president of the Central American country by an absolute majority. And that Rosario Murillo will serve as vice president. His rivals yesterday were reduced yesterday to five low-voltage candidates, considered puppets of the Government to legitimize the elections. Elections where only the president votes are often unreliable. Even so, the end began to be written last night with the vote count.
Possible sanctions
The electoral results of this Sunday, in addition to being highly in doubt due to their apparent low representation, may be accompanied by a cascade of international sanctions. US President Joe Biden plans to sign a battery of pressure measures on the new cabinet in the event of a Sandinista victory and the General Assembly of the Organization of American States could propose the suspension of Nicaragua in this group. “No power” is going to “intimidate us,” replied Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada.
And Ortega, meanwhile in his labyrinth, accused the detained opponents of promoting the “terrorist coup” of 2018 – in reference to the April demonstrations caused by his social security reform that left more than 300 dead in a harsh repression – and said that “they were going to take power.” “Although they dress as they dress, they are demons who do not want peace,” added the Sandinista leader, for whom all of them are “sowers of death” and “hatred” who have conspired to thwart the elections. “Therefore these elections are, thank God, a sign, a commitment by the vast majority of Nicaraguans to vote for peace.”
Abstention, key
The opposition Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy said last night that abstention was being very high because the “people did not want to legitimize this group.” However, the Nicaraguan government led by Daniel Ortega said the opposite.
In these elections, up to 90 deputies of the National Assembly had to be elected, apart from the president himself, the vice president and twenty representatives of the Central American Parliament.
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