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Reuters

Nicaragua’s long-serving President Daniel Ortega said the Central American country will no longer hold elections, eliminating the possibility of an electoral challenge when his term ends next year and further entrenching the rule he shares with his wife.
Ortega, who has continuously held power since 2007 following an earlier presidential term ‌in the 1980s, said the move will close off any path to the opposition, although he did not provide details about carrying out the ban.
“There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said in a speech on Sunday evening to commemorate the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which Ortega helped overthrow the US-backed Anastasio Somoza dictatorship.
“The days when parties backed by the Yankees (United States) and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again,” he added, in the 80-year-old’s first public appearance in two months.
The Trump administration has described the Ortega government as a dictatorship, and imposed sanctions on more ‌than 2,350 Nicaraguan officials and their relatives.
Nicaragua’s last election in 2021 was widely disputed after Ortega detained opponents and business leaders and criminalised dissent.

Last year, Ortega further consolidated his power through a series of constitutional reforms that included naming his ‌wife Rosario Murillo as “co-president” and extending the presidential term to six years.
He and his wife control virtually every aspect of the government, ⁠including the armed forces and the judiciary.
The ⁠UN Human Rights Council has accused Ortega and Murillo’s government of transforming the country “into an authoritarian state” and systematically violating human rights. In 2018, Ortega responded to widespread anti-government protests with a crackdown ‌in which more than 300 people were killed.
Felix Maradiaga, a presidential hopeful for the opposition who was jailed ⁠in Nicaragua from 2021 to 2023 before being expelled to the US, said he saw Ortega’s comments less as a show of force than as “a confession of fear”.
“Ortega publicly acknowledged what has always been his true intention: to prevent his tyrannical project from being subjected to ‌any form of democratic competition,” Maradiaga ‌said.
Ortega had already effectively squashed competition during prior re-elections of 2011, 2016 and 2021, according to Salvador Marenco, coordinator of the Costa Rica-based Nicaragua Nunca Mas Human Rights Collective.
And last year’s constitutional reforms had already established a one-party system in a country where opposition leaders no longer exist, because they have been exiled.
Ortega, he said, is trying to “avoid the risk of an electoral defeat, because he knows that the people reject him”.


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Nicaragua will no longer hold elections, president says

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega waving next to wife and co-President Rosario Murillo. Photo: EL 19 DIGITAL via AFP

Crowds gather for anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution that toppled the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and first brought Daniel Ortega to power. Photo: El19 DIGITAL via AFP

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Central American nation’s long-time leader vows US-backed parties will ‘never again’ take power


Central American nation’s long-time leader vows US-backed parties will ‘never again’ take power.


Human rights

Costa Rica

United States

Nicaragua will no longer hold elections, president says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Central American nation’s long-time leader vows US-backed parties will ‘never again’ take power

Central American nation’s long-time leader vows US-backed parties will ‘never again’ take power