The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua, led by President Daniel Ortega, won the disputed municipal elections on Sundayalready winning all the mayors examined so far, 112 out of a total of 153, according to a preliminary official report released on Monday.
The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) awarded the victory to the “United Nicaragua Triunfa” alliance, led by the FSLN, led by President Daniel Ortega, in 112 municipalities including the office of the mayor of Managua, the capital, once again in the hands of Sandinista Reyna Rueda.
With a total of 1,957,074 valid votes, 52.6% of the 3,722,884 Nicaraguans called to vote, the FSLN, which controls all state powers, in addition to the Army and National Police, became the absolute governor of Nicaragua, going from managing 141 mayors to the current 153.
The official report does not include the remaining 41 municipalities where the vote is pending.
Elections were held to elect 153 mayors, 153 deputy mayors and over 6,000 directors. The FSLN already controlled 141 municipalities, having taken over five mayors in July last July, who were in the hands of the opposition Citizens for Freedom (CxL) party, banned in 2021.
All the power
The other 12 municipalities have, to date, been under the control of the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC) and the Liberal Alliance of Nicaragua (ALN), which the opposition considers “collaborators”.
In addition to the FSLN, the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC), the Alliance for the Republic (APRE), the Independent Liberal Party (PLI Alliance) and Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Asla Takanka (Yatama) participated in the elections.
Ortega, 76, first ruled from 1985 to 1990 e returned to power in 2007, only to be re-elected three times in the elections where the opposition denounced “fraud”. Since 2016 he co-governs with his wife, vice president Rosario Murillo.
Elections on Sunday from which three opposition parties were excludedthey were carried out after new police raids in six departments in the country, according to the independent observatory Urnas Abiertas, which reported more than 700 cases of “political violence”, such as sieges, coercion and the capture of 17 people from November 1 to 6.
According to this body, not endorsed by the government, only 17.3 percent took part in the vote of the 3.7 million Nicaraguans qualified to vote, which shows an abstention rate of more than 82.6%. The total population of Nicaragua is approximately 6.6 million.
The president of the CSE, Brenda Rocha, said that the electoral process was “a civic and sovereign exercise” that ended “successfully”, but did not provide data on citizens’ participation in the polls.
pressures
In a first assessment of the day, Open Ballot Boxes pointed out that the election they were carried out “under the absolute control” of the FSLN in the territories, where people were “monitored block by block by the ruling party” to force them to vote or to harass them if they were opponents.
According to the report, civil servants were “under pressure” to vote and in 63% of the polling stations there was the “installation of checkpoints” and surveillance by Sandinista political operators, to find out who went to vote and who did not.
In 42% of the polling stations observed there were cases of people not recorded in the electoral roll, some of which were “attacked and expelled” in the district, while in 41% of the centers “political proselytism” was detected, as there were posters of the Sandinista party and electoral personnel dressed in party propaganda, Urnas Abiertas pointed out.
Nicaragua is experiencing a serious political crisis that erupted with social protests in April 2018, when police and paramilitary repression resulted in 355 deaths, 2,000 injuries, more than 1,600 detainees at different times and 100,000 exiles, most of them refugees. in Costa Rica..
Source: Clarin
