General Elections of 2006
The political crisis between the Executive Branch (President Enrique Bolaños) and the other branches of power (Legislative and Judicial) escalated. Late in 2004, the National Assembly revised the Constitution stipulating that leaders of public services organs would have to be appointed by the National Assembly, and that the president’s appointment of ministers and ambassadors would also have to be approved by the Assembly. The Government of Nicaragua (GON) repeatedly voiced its opposition to these revisions, arguing that the opposition is stripping the president and the government authorities of their power. The crisis escalated again in mid-June 2005 when the National Assembly designated new directors of public services organizations (post office and telephone firms) to replace those that had been named by the president.
Although the law provided that the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) is an independent fourth branch of government, the CSE was highly politicized, subject to political influence, and did not function properly throughout the year 2005.
Clashes among the government branches emerged once more when the two major parties (PLC and FSLN), decided to again reform the country’s constitution. The result of these reforms was the creation of new Superintendents of Public Services and Property. The reforms also included previously approved reforms that reduced the power of the executive in appointing Ministers, diplomatic representatives, and directors of autonomous entities, as well, the reforms suspended tax exemptions for the mass media.
The president attempted to counteract these reforms by calling for a dialogue between the major political parties on January 19 th 2005. Despite the call, however, the implementation of the reforms was carried out. In response to this, the president sent the case to the Central American Court of Justice which declared the reforms to be inapplicable. The verdict deepened the political crisis. Once again, the government requested that an OAS mission be sent to Nicaragua to follow up on the situation that had been developing for months. The OAS sent a mission, headed by Dr. Enrique Lagos. The technical mission traveled to Nicaragua during May 18-24, 2005.
During 2006 the National Assembly used controversial charges of fundraising violations by President Bolanos during his 2001 election campaign to pressure the president to negotiate with the assembly on a wide variety of issues in the country's long running institutional conflict. The Organization of American States (OAS) and foreign governments expressed concerns that the political charges against the president and the efforts to remove him from office threatened the constitutional order. In June 2006 the National Assembly formed two special commissions to study the charges against the president and several of his ministers who had been members of his campaign team. In September the assembly stripped several cabinet members of their immunity and sent their cases to the judiciary for prosecution on charges of campaign finance irregularities. Assembly leaders publicly stated that the charges were political in nature and intended as a lever in negotiations between the executive and legislative branches of government.
The pre-electoral panorama in Nicaragua is dominated by the growing possibilities that Herty Lewites and Eduardo Montealegre would be presidential candidates. Both candidates were denied the possibility of running as the presidential candidates for their respective parties. Lewites was expelled from the FSLN on February 26 th 2005, while Montealegre’s possibility of becoming the official PLC candidate ended when at the last party convention the decision was taken to eliminate primaries from the party statutes
By September 2006 Sandinista Front (FSLN) candidate Daniel Ortega remained stagnant in the polls, though within striking distance of victory (using fraudulent means), while the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) under Eduardo Montealegre and the Sandinista Renovation Movement's (MRS) Edmundo Jarquin continue a slow climb, leaving the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC) in fourth place. There was a lack of public confidence in Nicaraguan’s governing institutions, including disappointment with the performance of the Consejo Supremo Electoral (CSE) an institution that is controlled, from top to bottom, by the Frente Sandinista para la Liberación Nacional (FSLN) and the Partido Liberal Constitucional (PLC).
FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega won the presidential elections of November 5, 2006, with 38% of the vote, defeating a divided opposition. ALN candidate Eduardo Montealegre garnered 29%; Jose Rizo of the PLC received 26%; and MRS' Edmundo Jarquin polled fourth with 6%. A candidate can claim victory with only 35 percent of the valid votes, with a margin of 5 percent or greater over the next closest competitor. Ortega was inaugurated on January 10, 2007.
The November 2008 municipal, March 2010 regional, and November 2011 presidential and legislative elections were marred by significant irregularities and were denounced by domestic and international observers as severely flawed. The FSLN-controlled Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) claimed that Daniel Ortega was re-elected with 62% of the vote and that the FSLN party received 63 seats in the National Assembly to claim a legislative supermajority. International and domestic organizations also raised concerns regarding the constitutional legitimacy of Ortega’s reelection.
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