This Sunday about 4.4 million Nicaraguans have been called to the polls to vote in elections considered “fraudulent” and lacking ” legitimacy” by the international community and where the current president and Daniel Ortega are seeking his fourth consecutive re-election as president.
The presidential elections have been held without any kind of democratic guarantee as seven of its main opponents were arrested and three political parties were even eliminated from the presidential race.
This Sunday, November 7, in Managua , the capital of Nicaragua, the voting centers opened at 06:38 in the morning, local time with 3,160 voting centers enabled so that citizens summoned to the polls could exercise their right to vote. . Nicaraguans will elect their president in addition to 90 deputies to the National Assembly and 20 to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) .
The dictator Daniel Ortega, who has led the country since 2007, has all the way paved to be reelected without being muddled in his new conquest by any other leader having been removed from the polls. The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) is the favorite to win elections that opponents and human rights defenders have described as “fraudulent”, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union , and Various countries have shown their reservations about the legitimacy of the results.
The leader of the Venezuelan opposition Juan Guaidó denounced this Sunday that the president of Nicaragua and candidate for re-election, Daniel Ortega, seeks to perpetuate himself in power with elections “tailored” which he described as “fraud.” “Ortega’s intention to achieve an election tailored to him is evident, a fraud,” he said.
Guaidó maintained that the Nicaraguan president sought control of the Electoral Tribunal and voting records, the exclusion of opposition political parties, the imprisonment of opposition candidates, “the absence of fundamental rights and freedoms and the existence of more than 30 political prisoners from various sectors of society. “All of this is a convincing demonstration of the totalitarian nature of the Ortega regime,” he added.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights assured that “Ortega’s will is to turn Nicaragua into the tomb of freedom of expression .” In this way and with the ritual of obstructing the press as usual, little news is crossing the borders and indicating what is happening at this decisive moment for the country.
The elections that at the moment cannot be “legitimized” as the Madres de Abril platform has pointed out to the media, these responses are added to the floods of protests that arise from within a country shaken by the lack of freedom. In Madrid, several groups of exiles have also demonstrated at this crossroads in their country. Yesterday Sunday, thousands of Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica protested this Sunday through the main streets of the capital against “fraud” and the electoral “circus” orchestrated by the president of that country, Daniel Ortega.
With banners and slogans such as “We do not have anyone to vote for, everyone is imprisoned”, “SOS Nicaragua”, “Viva Nicaragua libre” , “Ortega listen, we are still in the fight”, “I will not go out to vote on November 7” the protesters asked the population did not go out to vote and the international community did not recognize the elections.
Married warns of “the electoral farce”
The president of the Popular Party, Pablo Casado , has warned that no democrat can support the ” electoral farce of the dictatorship” in Nicaragua, while he has assured that in the Central American country “there are no free and transparent elections.”
This is how the leader of the ‘popular’ has expressed himself in a message that he has published on his social media profile in which he has pronounced on the general elections that are held this Sunday in Nicaragua.
“Freedoms are trampled on , the opposition is imprisoned and journalists are prevented from entering the country,” added Casado, who has also sent all his support to the Nicaraguans “who are asking for freedom.”
The NGO Human Rights Watch describes the electoral appointment as a “circus”
The director of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) for the Americas, José Miguel Vivanco, has attacked President Daniel Ortega – who aspires to achieve a fourth consecutive term – by pointing out that the general elections held this Sunday in Nicaragua are a true “farce” process.
Today’s elections in Nicaragua are a sham. Since the end of May, the regime has arbitrarily detained and prosecuted 39 critics of the government, most of them for ‘treason,’ including seven presidential candidates, “Vivanco recalled.
The head of HRW also stressed that ” the elections are held without international observers and the regime has not allowed international journalists to enter the country.” “State institutions are used to repress and punish anyone who is perceived as critical and guarantee Ortega’s impunity,” Vivanco asserted.
Furthermore, it mentions “repressive laws and measures that violate fundamental rights and restrict political participation”, as well as the “recent wave of arrests” in which “more than 100 critics of the government” have been arrested. ” Many have been imprisoned for more than a year and face terrible detention conditions,” he denounced.
Vivanco has also reproached Ortega for “disabling the main opposition parties from participating in the elections,” “raiding media offices” and ” canceling the legal status of numerous civil society organizations.”
«Ortega will assume his fourth consecutive term by force of repression, censorship and fear. It is essential to redouble international pressure to demand the release of political prisoners, and that democracy be restored in Nicaragua, “he stressed.
