After Sandinistas Took Over When Did Election Begin Again in Nicaragua
Daniel Ortega won a fourth sequent presidential term Monday in elections denounced by the US as a "sham", with the long-term Nicaraguan leader deriding his opponents – well-nigh of them jailed or in exile – every bit "terrorists".
Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council said that with nearly all the ballots counted, a preliminary tally had Ortega's Sandinista alliance winning with about 76% of votes.
With seven would-exist presidential challengers detained since June, Ortega was assured a fourth consecutive five-year term – his fifth overall.
The five contenders he did face up were dismissed by critics as government loyalists.
Ortega and his married woman, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, are both in their 70s but have shown no desire to relinquish their vice-like grip on power.
Dominicus'south election has been widely criticised as neither free nor fair, with U.s. President Joe Biden accusing the Nicaraguan start couple of overseeing a "pantomime" vote.
On Mon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country was set to use a range of tools, including possible sanctions, visa restrictions and coordinated actions against those it said were complicit in supporting the Nicaragua government's "undemocratic acts".
A argument by all 27 European Matrimony members accused Ortega of "systematic incarceration, harassment and intimidation" of opponents, journalists and activists.
The elections "complete the conversion of Nicaragua into an autocratic authorities", the EU said. Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Espana and Britain called for detained opposition leaders to be freed.
Veering from republic, Nicaragua'due south Ortega secures some other term
In a speech that lasted more than an hour on Monday evening, Ortega fired back against the Usa and Europe, labeling them "Yankee imperialists."
"They wanted to be at the head of the Supreme Electoral Council ... counting the votes of the Nicaraguans," Ortega said, addressing supporters from Revolution Square in Managua. "That won't happen once again in Nicaragua. Never again, never again."
Since May, Ortega's police have imprisoned dozens of leading opposition figures, including vii presidential hopefuls, concern leaders, journalists and even some of his one-time rebel allies.
The ballot took place without international observers and with most strange media denied admission to the land
'Yous tin can't talk, You can't move'
Nicaragua'southward embattled opposition said the vote was marked by mass abstention even as the government claimed a turnout of 65 percent.
Fear vied with apathy among the four.four 1000000 Nicaraguans eligible to bandage votes in the country of 6.5 one thousand thousand.
"No one from my family unit went to vote. This was a mockery for Nicaraguans," said a 49-year-old adult female who runs a grocery store.
Like many others, she was likewise scared to give her name.
Short lines of voters wearing confront masks could be seen at some of the thirteen,459 polling stations, but many were empty when AFP visited.
At one of them, Pablo de Jesus RodrÃguez, a 26-yr-one-time carpenter and bricklayer, told AFP: "The president has washed good things for our country," as he cast his vote.
At that place were protests Lord's day in Costa Rica, Spain, the US and Guatemala, countries that are dwelling house to thousands of Nicaraguan exiles.
In neighbouring Costa Rica, where tens of thousands of Nicaraguan exiles have fled in recent years, about 2,000 anti-Ortega demonstrators marched forth a master thoroughfare in downtown San Jose on Dominicus, chanting, "Long live a gratis Nicaragua" as festive marimba music blared from speakers.
"I didn't want to get out my state," said protester Marcela Guevara, 48, an activist with Nicaragua's Blue and White National Unity political party, a major opposition coalition that chosen for a boycott of the election.
"But you can't talk, you can't motion, yous can't associate with groups of your choice," she said, adding she besides cannot imagine returning someday presently.
'We have a dictator'
Venezuela'due south President Nicolas Maduro – his own 2022 re-election not recognised by about of the international community – has congratulated Ortega on his victory.
Ortega, 75, get-go seized control afterward his Sandinista guerrillas ousted the Somoza family unit dynasty that held power in Nicaragua from 1937 to 1979.
From revolution to dictatorship
Now, critics accuse him of absolutism, corruption and turning Nicaraguan politics into a family unit thing.
"In the cease we take a dictator in Ortega, a caudillo (strongman) ... he hasn't allowed any other candidates in his party and at present, it seems, he won't allow a president in Nicaragua that isn't him," Fabian Medina, the author of a biography on Ortega, told AFP.
Ortega headed a left-wing Sandinista junta with the back up of Cuba and the Soviet Union later on the revolution, and was elected president in 1985.
Merely with the economy in ruins, he lost the following election in 1990.
With his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party in opposition, he spent the next 17 years "ruling from below" – fomenting violent protests and negotiating reforms with the government before his 2007 presidential comeback.
Backed by the deep oil funds of Venezuela, so nether his ideological marry Hugo Chavez, he started social programs for the poor, many of whom continue to support him.
Simply he was also careful to nurture ties with Nicaragua's powerful concern families by promising stability.
In 2014, his party in congress engineered a constitutional amendment scrapping presidential term limits, opening the way for him to remain president for life.
Ortega's shrewd politics, combined with his skill for ruthlessly cornering opponents, have allowed him to retain command of the FSLN, which he joined in 1963.
The US and Europe have imposed sanctions against the Ortega family unit members and allies.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
Source: https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20211108-nicaragua-s-ortega-wins-fourth-term-in-election-slammed-as-pantomime
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