General Elections of 1996
In 1996, Daniel Ortega made a third run for the presidency, this time against a true right- wing candidate. Arnoldo Alemán was the mayor of Managua, and leader of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC, Partido Liberal Constitucionalista). Citizens exercised their right peacefully to change their government in free and fair national elections in 1996 held under the auspices of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), an independent branch of government. Over 90 percent of eligible voters registered, and 76 percent of eligible voters voted in 1996. Over 3,000 national and international observers declared the elections free and fair, despite some logistical and organizational problems.
The elections of 1996 proceeded with the presidential election on 20 October 1996 and the first municipal elections (after 1990) on 05 November. Some 35 political parties participated in the presidential elections. The majority participated under the Liberal Alliance banner whose candidate was Dr. Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo. The National Project Party, which was created by Antonio Lacayo the son-in-law of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, promised a new type of politics different from the two extremes. The party’s candidate was Benjamín Lanzas. The UNO alliance of 1996 was led by the candidate Alfredo Cesar, while the FSLN had for the second time Daniel Ortega as its candidate.
As mayor Alemán gained a following among the poor through projects financed with USAID funds that were unavailable to FSLN politicians. That, combined with the appeal of more conservative positions in rural areas, allowed him to win a clear victory with 51.7 percent of the vote, although Ortega’s share of the vote rose slightly from 38.4% in 1990 to 39.5% in 1996. The Liberals won 42 seats in the National Assembly, to 36 for the FSLN, and 15 held by nine smaller parties. By early 2001, however, the number of Liberals had dwindled to 36, with the balance consisting of 35 Sandinistas, 8 independent Liberals, 5 Conservatives, and 9 deputies from minor parties.
The first municipal elections took place on 05 November 1996 with 145 mayor offices in contention in the 17 Departments. The Liberal Alliance won 92 of the municipalities, while the FSLN won 51 municipalities. That left 2 municipalities for the remaining parties. In Managua the FSLN went to into the elections with some important divisions since Herty Lewites, a militant of the party, decided to run under the banner of the “Movimiento Sol,” while Carlos Guadamuz was the official FSLN candidate. In the end, the candidate for the Liberal Alliance, Roberto Cedeño, won the Managua office.
The October 20, 1996 presidential, legislative, and mayoral elections were judged free and fair by international observers and by the ground-breaking national electoral observer group Etica y Transparencia (Ethics and Transparency) despite a number of irregularities, due largely to logistical difficulties and a baroquely complicated electoral law. This time Nicaraguans elected former-Managua Mayor Arnoldo Aleman, leader of the center-right Liberal Alliance. Seventy-six percent of Nicaragua's 2.4 million eligible voters participated in the elections. The first transfer of power in recent Nicaraguan history from one democratically elected president to another took place on January 10, 1997, when the Aleman Government was inaugurated.
The questioning of the presidential electoral results by the FSLN and the subsequent failure of the bilateral negotiations between the FSLN and the new government sparked one of worst governance crisis in the post-war history, roadblocks and demonstrations were set up in various cities and highways across the country. To stop the spiral of violence and economic costs, the government called for a National Dialogue and proposed that ET direct it. The acceptance of 56 organizations, including the political parties with representation in the Assembly, civil society, the branches of government, etc., to participate in the dialogue was widespread, only one major actor, the FSLN, did not participate. ET was in charge of this Dialogue which lasted 4 months. It established more than 200 agreements between the participants which were an enormous contribution to the ending of the crisis.
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