Nicaraguans who voted in the presidential election on Sunday (November 7) were widely condemned as a “scam” because long-time leader Daniel Ortega posted his opponents (most of whom were imprisoned or exiled) The “demon” label for “spreading terror”.
Approximately 30,000 police and soldiers were deployed to monitor the voting. Human rights groups said the voting was conducted in an atmosphere of fear, and Ortega had excluded his challengers.
He is guaranteed a fourth consecutive five-year term, which is his fifth term, accompanied by his wife and vice president, 70-year-old Rosario Murillo.
The 75-year-old Ortega launched a new attack on his opponent on Sunday. He said: “Today, we must stand up against those who preach terrorism, financial wars, spread terror and death.”
He was referring to those who participated in large-scale protests against his government in 2018, which were violently suppressed and killed more than 300 people in the poorest countries in Central America.
Since then, about 150 people have been sentenced to jail, including 39 opposition figures who have been rounded up since June before voting on Sunday. They include seven potential presidential challengers.
Another approximately 100,000 Nicaraguans fled into exile.
“They are planning, and they don’t want these elections to happen,” Ortega said on Sunday.
“They are the sowers of death, hatred, and terror…they are demons who don’t want peace.”
‘Police State’
Among the 4.4 million Nicaraguans who are eligible to vote in 13,459 ballot boxes in a country of 6.5 million people, fear competes with indifference.
“No one can vote. This is an election circus. If they (the regime) are so sure that the people love them, why are they throwing presidential candidates into jail?” a 51-year-old secretary told AFP.
Like many others, she was afraid to say her name.
A small row of voters wearing masks can be seen in some polling stations, but many of them are empty.
Members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) under Ortega’s ruling house called voters to the ballot box from house to house.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) stated that Nicaragua is a “police state” that uses “fear (and) social control” tactics to “crush the opposition.”
On Sunday, protests against the Ortega regime took place in the United States and Costa Rica. Costa Rica is home to thousands of Nicaraguan exiles. The Ortega regime faces five challengers on Sunday, but only in name.
“We hope that the demonic couple (Ortega and Murillo) will leave this country and democracy will return,” said Marcos Martinez, one of the approximately 1,000 demonstrators in the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose.
In Nicaragua itself, gatherings of more than 200 people are banned, ostensibly as a measure to prevent the coronavirus.
The opposition in exile called for a boycott of Sunday’s vote.
But at a polling station near La Reinaga in eastern Managua, voters Carlos Reyes offered a different view.
The 39-year-old said: “I voted because it is a right and because I want the progress of this country to continue.”
‘dictatorship’
The election was conducted without international observers, and most foreign media were denied entry into the country.
Only “election servants” and journalists from countries deemed “friendly” by the government (such as Russia) can be certified.
This week, the United States stated that the Ortega regime was “determined to preserve power at all costs”.
Patrick Ventrell, Director of Central American Affairs at the U.S. State Department, said: “It is clear that these elections have no credibility. They are a scam.”
“We will enter a dictatorship scenario, and we will have to respond to it.”
After the US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle was expelled by the guerrillas, Ortega was an inflammatory Marxist in his youth, and he ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.
Ortega returned to power in 2007, won three re-elections, became increasingly authoritarian and lifted the presidency limit.
According to a law passed by a parliament led by Oort’s friends, imprisoned opposition figures were accused of unspecified attacks on Nicaragua’s “sovereignty”, who also control the judiciary and electoral institutions.
The electoral authorities have banned citizens of the country’s main opposition coalition from freely participating in Sunday’s vote.
Nicaragua’s last daily opposition daily, La Prensa, put its head in prison in August, and Facebook this week announced the closure of a government-run troll farm that spread anti-opposition messages.
‘criminal’
In a recent Cid-Gallup poll, two-thirds of respondents said they would vote for opposition candidates.
The most popular is Cristiana Chamorro, the daughter of Violetta Barrios de Chamorro. She was the only person who defeated Ortega in the 1990 election.
The Chamorro were placed under house arrest, and six other presidential candidates were detained, which their families believed amounted to torture.
For Ortega, the critics of his imprisonment are “criminals” who seek to overthrow him with the support of the United States.
The wave of arrests has worsened relations with Washington and the European Union, both of which have imposed sanctions on Ortega’s family and allies.
The results of the voting on Sunday are expected to be announced approximately 6 hours after the end of 6 pm (0000 GMT).
