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Nicaragua - Political Parties

To develop genuinely democratic processes, political parties need to become more responsive to citizen interests and concerns. Nicaraguan political parties have traditionally operated as top-down centralized structures, with deeply embedded patronage relationships at the national and local levels. As a result, citizens and party members fail to hold their leaders accountable for performance and service delivery failures. Addressing this root problem requires working with emerging leaders and local political party leaders to not only strengthen their ties to citizens but to develop party structures that strive to meet the needs of the population, rather than simply reinforcing patronage ties. A competitive multi-party system that more effectively represents people at all levels of government is an essential foundation for democratic governance that delivers public benefits to citizens.

Most political parties have a history of being highly centralized and top down, with little room for dynamic leadership within local party structures. Political party presence at the local level, moreover, is marked by deeply embedded patronage relationships. As a result, citizens and party members fail to hold their leaders accountable for performance and service delivery failures.

All three Somozas governed under the banner of the Liberal Party (Partido Liberal), which was opposed by the Conservative Party (Partido Conservador). Here as elsewhere in Latin America, the labels Liberal and Conservative have little in common with their meaning in the United States. Both are elite parties, reflecting the fact that the country has very little in the way of a middle class. Because of its association with the Somozas, the Liberal Party in Nicaragua staked out a position to the right of the Conservative Party.

Anastasio Somoza Debayle acquired a reputation as particularly brutal and corrupt. The January 1978 assassination of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, the Conservative publisher of opposition daily newspaper La Prensa, turned even the elites against him. He was overthrown in a 1979 popular insurrection led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional), a Marxist group that forged links with Christians inspired by Liberation Theology, and adopted the red-and-black banner and nationalist philosophy of Sandino.

After 1990, the year in which the first democratic elections in Nicaragua took place, electoral processes experienced difficulties that are specific to a democratic process that aims at the consolidation of democracy. The first reforms made to the Constitution and the Electoral Law in 1995 introduced new regulations affecting the Nicaraguan electoral system. A clearly polarized vote was observed between the country’s two main political forces, which reflects both the exclusion of other political parties due to the electoral law reform agreed to by the PLC and FSLN within a pact to divvy up quotas of state power (2000) and the political legacy of war during the eighties between the Sandinista revolutionary movement linked to the socialist bloc and the opposition sectors sponsored by the US government. Over the “long haul,” a bi-party system has been as much a backbone of the political dynamic since the 19th century as the wars and pacts between caudillos and power groups have been part of the national political praxis.

The second democratic national elections took place in 1996 under the new institutional legal framework). In all, Nicaragua's 35 political parties participated in the 1996 elections, independently or as part of one of five electoral coalitions. With nearly 52% of the vote, the Liberal Alliance, a coalition of five political parties and sectors of another two, won the presidency, a plurality in the national legislature and a large majority of the mayoral races. The FSLN ended in second place with 38%.

Most other parties fared poorly. A new political party, the Nicaraguan Christian Path (CCN), ended a distant third with 4% of the vote and four seats in the 93-member National Assembly. The traditional alternative to the Liberals, the National Conservative Party (PNC), ended in fourth place with slightly over 2% of the vote and three seats in the National Assembly. The remaining 24 parties and alliances together obtained less than 5% of the vote. Seven of these smaller parties control eight seats in the National Assembly. Only two of 145 mayors belong to third parties. According to Nicaraguan law, those political parties that did not win at least one seat in the National Legislature automatically lose their legal status and must repay government campaign financing. There are 19 parties represented in the National Assembly independently or as part of an alliance.

The PLC candidate, Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo, won this election. Only three political parties/alliances participated in the 2001 elections, these were: the PLC; the FSLN; and the PC. A large number of the minority parties formed alliances with the major parties. The Liberal Alliance once again won the election, this time with Enrique Bolaños Geyer, the president of the Republic of Nicaragua, as their candidate.

The 2001 elections were won by the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) with 56% of the valid votes for the presidential ticket of Enrique Bolaños and José Rizo, over 52% of the votes for the Sandinista Front (FSLN) ticket of Daniel Ortega and. Agustín Jarquín. The distribution of seats in the National Assembly was divided between the majority parties: 53 representatives for the PLC, including former President Arnoldo Alemán, 38 for the FSLN including the losing presidential candidate D. Ortega, and 1 for the Conservative Party. Twenty women (22%) were elected as representatives.

In the case of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Electoral Council, the Comptroller General’s Office and the Public Ministry, their top executive positions were distributed between the FSLN and the PLC as political spaces through the two-party pact. This marks the Bolaños government’s limits of action and its need for alliances, as well as for strengthening its own social base. For these reasons, the executive promoted, albeit unsuccessfully, the creation of a new party, the Liberal Unity Group, trying to unify different Liberal currents and individual figures, banking on the inarticulateness of the PLC with the sentencing of Alemán and his disappearance from the political stage.

The Electoral Council reopened the electoral game by recognizing the legal status of many parties again (of 26 parties in 1996 only 3 remained in 2001) following a Supreme Court decision declaring the restrictions to the electoral law agreed to in the FSLN-PLC pact of 2000 unconstitutional.

1. Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional): A populist left-wing party, born of the guerrilla movement that toppled the dictatorship of Anastazio Somoza Debayle in 1979. Its leader is Daniel Ortega Saavedra, who headed Council of National Reconstruction (Junta de Reconstrucción Nacional), then was elected president of Nicaragua from 1984-1990. But the FSLN is in many ways changed from what it was in the 1980s. Many of its top and middle-level echelons have left the party in protest against autocratic tendencies and the caudillo status of Ortega. Examples include former vice president Sergio Ramírez Mercado (during the Ortega presidency 1985-1990), former education minister (and priest) Ernesto Cardenal, and poet Giaconda Belli, who jointly signed a statement saying they could not vote for either candidate in the 2001 presidential election (Cardenal 7-13 Oct. 2001). Another example is Carlos Chamorro, son of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who edited the party newspaper Barricada for 14 years before being fired by the party leadership for being too independent. The party colors are red and black.
2. Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS, Movimiento Renovador Sandinista): A small party composed of former Sandinistas who left the FSLN after failed attempts to reform it from within. After the Sandinista Front lost the 1990 election, a strong debate developed between those who believed in staying faithful to the principles of the Sandinista Revolution and those who believed in a move towards European-style social democracy. Daniel Ortega lead those who insisted on strong government intervention in a mixed economy and an anti-imperialist foreign policy. The social democrat faction, led by former Vice President Sergio Ramirez, argued for a shift to a more free market economic policy and an accommodation with the reality of US power in the region. Through 1993 and 1994, Ramirez and his allies organized a parliamentary coup leading a majority of the 39 Sandinista deputies elected in 1990 to work with right-wing factions, railroading through the National Assembly restrictive changes to the 1987 Constitution. In May 1994, the Sandinista Front held a national party congress in which Sergio Ramirez and his sympathizers lost a series of positions in the party structure while Daniel Ortega strengthened his grassroots support to consolidate his leadership. Its president is Dora María Tellez, a former Sandinista comandante guerrillera (guerrilla commander) who led the 1978 takeover of Somoza’s National Palace (Palacio Nacional). Another prominent member is Sergio Ramírez Mercado, vice president of Nicaragua during the presidency of Daniel Ortega Saavedra. The MRS joined with the FSLN in the National Convergence for the 2001 elections, though Sergio Ramírez dissented. The MRS social democrats have disappeared as a national political force.
3. The National Opposition Union (UNO) Coalition was a loose coalition of political parties which traced its origins back to the Nicaraguan Democratic Coordinating Group (Coordinadora Democratica Nicaraguense—CDN), which was formed in 1982 by opposition groups that had protested actions of the Sandinista government as early as November 1980. In 1980 these groups had temporarily withdrawn their members from the corporatist legislature set up by the Sandinista government, the Council of State, to protest the imposition of three emergency decrees that restricted civil liberties. By the time the various political parties coalesced into an electoral coalition in September 1989, the fourteen political parties that had evolved from the earlier opposition parties were committed enough to the goal of opposing the Sandinista government that they united around a single candidate, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who defeated the FSLN in the 1990 elections. Violeta's coalition contained 23 parties and leaders competing for positions. Nicaragua's opposition forces came together under the United National Opposition (UNO) to win the 1990 elections, but soon splintered apart. The Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC) emerged as the dominant Anti- Sandinista force.
4. Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC, Partido Liberal Constitucionalista): A populist right- wing party. It was formed from the fusion of several smaller Liberal parties. Its leader in 2001 was Arnoldo Alemán. Before the 2001 election, the PLC was able to bring most of the smaller democratic parties into an alliance. Aleman personally selected Enrique Bolanos as the alliance's presidential candidate as well as many of the National Assembly and Central American Parliament deputy candidates. Its candidate in the presidential election was Enrique Bolaños, a business leader who served as Alemán’s vice president. The vice presidential candidate was José Rizo. In 2016, lawyer and right-wing rebel of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) Maximino Rodriguez had 4.7 percent support in advacen of the elections, while 27 percent preferred not to answer. The party color is red.
5. The Alliance for the Republic (APRE) was a party loyal to and supported by the Bolanos administration. In 2003, Aleman, who pilfered tens of millions of dollars from state coffers, was convicted of fraud and money laundering, stripped of his parliamentary immunity and sentenced to 20 years in prison. This process caused a great upheaval in the Liberal ranks and when the dust settled, a small number of Liberal and Conservative deputies broke from the PLC alliance to form a new political caucus to support Bolanos, but the vast majority remained loyal to Aleman. The disaffected Conservatives and Liberals, unhappy with Aleman's continued influence in the PLC, formed the APRE.
6. The Independent Liberal Party (PLI) emerged once Somoza “kidnapped” Liberalism in his PLN, it produced a scission among the historical Liberals. Founded in 1944, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), run by intellectuals of urban middle strata with a clear anti-Somocista orientation. The PLI was the party that for many years pulled together those who didn’t find a channel for opposing the dictatorship in either the Conservative party or the bipartite Liberal scheme. In 2016 the Nicaraguan Supreme Electoral Council dismissed 28 opposition legislators (16 members and 12 alternate members) from Congress. The Congressmen belonged to the Independent Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Independiente, PLI) and its ally, the Sandinista Renovation Movement. They were dismissed for refusing to comply with the Supreme Court’s appointment of Pedro Reyes, one of President Ortega’s “unconditional” politicians, as the new PLI president. Montealegre lost the legal representation he had usurped several years previously supported by an alliance of civil society figures against three rival factions. The Supreme Court judged that another of the factions held the PLI's legitimate legal representation, provoking a fiercely angry response for Montealegre and the La Prensa newspaper, virtually a political party in its own right. Montealegre, who held several positions in rightwing governments before 2006 when he was runner-up to Ortega in the presidential race, told the Guardian: “We’ve not withdrawn from the election, we’ve been expelled. The election will be a farce.”
7. Conservative Party (PC, Partido Conservador): A centrist party. It was originally intending to mount a serious challenge to the PLC and FSLN, inspired by opinion polls that indicated substantial disaffection with both major parties. But presidential candidate Noel Vidaurre quit the race in July after failing to form a coalition with several other smaller parties. Vidaurre was replaced by Alberto Sabarío, who garnered less than 5% support in opinion polls as election day approached. The vice presidential candidate was María Consuelo Sequeira González. Sabarío acknowledged that he had no realistic expectations of winning the election, and that he was running to preserve the PC’s electoral registration in order to be able to make a serious run for the presidency in 2006 (Briones Loáisiga 27 July 2001). The party color is green.
8. Social Christian Unity (USC, Unidad Social Cristiana): A centrist, Christian democratic party. It lost its electoral registry, and with it its ability to run candidates in elections. For the 2001 elections, it entered into an alliance (National Convergence, Convergencia Nacional) with the FSLN. Party leaders include Erick Ramírez, Adán Fletes, Azucena Ferrey, and former National Assembly president Luis Humberto Guzmán.
9. Party of the Nicaraguan Resistance (PRN, Partido de la Resistencia Nicaragüense): A party made up of former Contra combatants. It has not met the new more restrictive standards for recognition as a registered party eligible to take part in elections.
10. Movement of National Unity (MUN, Movimiento de Unidad Nacional): This is another splinter group, led by retired General of the Army Joaquín Cuadra, another former Sandinista who headed the Nicaraguan Armed Forces during the administration of President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. Gen. Cuadra played a lead role in the effort to draft Mrs. Chamorro to run for president on the Conservative Party line.
11. Movement for National Dignity (Movimiento por la Dignidad Nacional): A splinter group headed by the Rev. Miguel Angel Casco. Casco is a former member of the National Directorate of the FSLN, and an FSLN deputy to the National Assembly. Following his break with the FSLN, he endorsed Liberal Party candidate Enrique Bolaños in the 2001 presidential election, in return for a promise to head an office of religious affairs in a Bolaños administration.
12. Conservative Alliance (ALCON, Alianza Conservadora): A splinter group headed by former Nicaraguan Resistance (Contra) leader Adolfo Calero Portocarrero. The party entered into an alliance with the PLC for the 2001 elections.
13. National Coalition for Democracy: The parties comprising the Coalition barely register among the 0.5 percent “Other parties” in national opinion surveys by respected polling organizations. The Coalition itself cannot present candidates because it has not registered with Nicaragua’s electoral authorities.

FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega won the presidential elections of November 5, 2006. Once in power, the FSLN used state resources for political activities to enhance its electoral advantage. On 17 September 2009, Nicaragua's Supreme Election Council (CSE) published the list of authorized political alliances for the March 7, 2010 Regional Elections in the Atlantic Coast. There would be four main political alliances and three Christian/Evangelical parties will run independently. Despite previous efforts to foster opposition unity, the main Liberal parties registered separate alliances and the CSE permitted a fourth alliance, comprised of disgruntled opposition leaders, to run. Meanwhile the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) assembled a formidable alliance of five political parties and eight political movements.

Press and opposition groups stated that the CSE’s annulment of several opposition candidacies for the National Assembly during the year 2011 was illegal. They alleged that the CSE annulled the candidacies to give an advantage to the president’s campaign and FSLN candidates.

Opposition parties, human rights groups, and international and domestic observation organizations expressed concern over a pending CSJ case on the legal status of the main opposition party, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI). They claimed that the case could illegally annul the elections of some, or all, of the PLI’s elected National Assembly candidates and represented a severe affront to the electoral process.

The FSLN made party membership mandatory for most public sector employees. The CPDH reported that employees in various state institutions were required to affiliate with the FSLN and that to apply for a government position, an applicant must receive a written recommendation from the FSLN. The Democratic Federation of Public Sector Workers (FEDETRASEP) also received reports that the FSLN automatically withdrew party dues from the paychecks of state employees.

The CPDH and ANPDH reported that employees in various state institutions were required to affiliate with the FSLN and that to apply for a government position, an applicant must receive a written recommendation from the FSLN. The ANPDH also received reports the FSLN automatically deducted party dues from the paychecks of certain state employees.

The FSLN also used its positions of authority to decide who could obtain national identity cards (cedulas). Persons without identity cards had difficulty participating in the legal economy, conducting bank transactions, or voting. Such persons also were subject to restrictions in employment, access to courts, and land ownership. Civil society organizations continued to express concern about the politicized distribution of identity cards, alleging this was how the FSLN attempted to manipulate past elections and that the CSE failed to provide identity cards to opposition members while widely distributing them to party loyalists.

On 21 September 2015, Brooklyn Rivera, an indigenous Miskito and prominent member of the indigenous party YATAMA, was stripped of his position as deputy in the National Assembly. The majority ruling party voted in favor of his removal in the National Assembly but failed to follow proper procedures. Shortly before his removal, Rivera publicly accused the ruling party of being involved in violent acts against indigenous groups in the northern region over issues related to land ownership.