Local elections in Nicaragua completed a one-party state installation

The Sandinista National Liberation Front completed its political domination of Nicaragua as electoral officials said it had won control of all the country’s 153 municipalities in elections that critics called unfair.

Thus, Sandinismo gave its last blow to Nicaraguan democracy, increasingly insignificant and ephemeral.

Nicaraguans voted on Sunday, November 6^th in municipal elections, after a campaign that did not include rallies or demonstrations. These elections are part of a consolidation of the totalitarian regime of Daniel Ortega.

The party of President Daniel Ortega already controlled 141 of Nicaragua’s municipalities. But having outlawed the country’s main opposition parties and jailed dozens of opposition figures, the field was clear for the Sandinistas’ sweep.

The governing Sandinistas lead an alliance made up of eight parties, as well as Indigenous and religious movements supportive of the ruling party called “United Nicaragua Triumphs.”

The election was a “farce” and just an effort by the government to install an absolute dictatorial and single party regime.

They appeared to achieve de facto single-party status, wresting control of the last 12 municipalities that had been in the hands of other parties, though those groups were considered collaborationist by much of the exiled opposition. 

The new FSLN mayoralties are: 

1. Camoapa;
2. San José de los Remates;
3. Santo Domingo;
4. La Trinidad;
5. Antigua City;
6. Bocana de Paiwas;
7. El Tortuguero;
8. Los Bueyes Pier;
9. La Cruz de Río Grande;
10. Mulukukú;
11. Wiwilí;
12. San Francisco de Cuapa.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed concern that “the minimum conditions necessary” to hold free and fair elections do not exist in Nicaragua. It called on the government to reestablish democratic guarantees and stop the repression.

The government has shuttered some 2,000 nongovernmental groups and more than 50 media outlets as it cracked down on voices of dissent. Some 100 civil society organizations were closed.

So, Daniel Ortega becomes the greatest dictator in Latin America. A president who has been diminishing the rights of citizens and the opposition, something that even the Cuban regime has been yielding. Today, Nicaragua is more like Cuba or China than leftist democracies. It is, without a doubt, the path that Nicolás Maduro has shown signs of following. 

This is the culmination of a process that began in 2018, aimed at imposing a dynastic dictatorship with absolute power, where ungovernability, political polarization and anarchy predominate, because the population no longer trusts the security forces, and there’s no more balance of powers. The social order and tissue have been completely ravaged, which impacts everyday life. 

First lady and Vice President Rosario Murillo told government media that the elections confirmed “the unity around peace and the good, as the only path” for the country. However, these elections were a part of a consolidation of the totalitarian regime of Daniel Ortega.

Nicaragua has been in political and social upheaval since big street protests that broke out in April 2018 became a referendum on Ortega’s rule. More than 200,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country since, most to neighboring Costa Rica.

Ahead of national elections last November when Ortega was elected to a fouth consecutive term, authorities locked up leading opposition figures, including six likely challengers. Since his re-election, Ortega has further cracked down on dissent, going so far as to jail an outspoken Roman Catholic bishop and other clergy.

It said there were Sandinista posters or people wearing Sandinista party promotional gear in 41% of the polling places.

Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front is so dominant it is approaching single-party status in Nicaragua. In the past two years, some opposition parties have been cancelled altogether and their candidates jailed. In July 2022, police ousted five opposition mayors who belonged to a party disbanded by electoral authorities and replaced them with allies.

Today, Nicaragua is a part of authoritarian block of states. The election, which returned Ortega for a fourth consecutive term as president, was celebrated by the Cuban, Venezuelan, and Russian governments. The U.S. Pres. Joe Biden called it a “pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic.” In March 2022 Arturo McFields Yescas, then Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Organization of American States, prominently accused Ortega of being a dictator.