Nicaragua - 2021 - General Elections
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) ranks Nicaragua and Venezuela among the only two countries in the world that developed from full democracies into autocracies over the past two decades. General elections are planned for 07 November 2021 to elect the President, the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament. Dictatorships have elections and elite leadership struggles, as do democracies. The Ortega regime has undermined democracy, abused the human rights of civilians, enacted repressive laws with grave economic consequences, and tried to silence the independent news media.
After a successful revolution and ouster of Anastasio Somoza's brutal dictatorship in 1979, Ortega and the FSLN ruled Nicaragua until 1990. Ortega was then voted out of office after losing to Violeta Chamorro. Across the world, socialists sympathized with and romanticized the small, Central American country. Initiatives expressing solidarity with Nicaragua sprung up even in the tiniest German towns. The most intrepid sympathizers even traveled to Nicaragua to work as harvest workers and did their part in supporting the socialist country. To this day, many left-leaning people in Latin America and Europe have had a hard time accepting Nicaragua's socialist utopia has been subverted.
Ortega never got over his electoral defeat to Violeta Chamorro in 1990 and that he vowed to claw back power. Following his reelection in 2006, Ortega has remained in charge to this day. Ortega's authoritarian tendencies became apparent with the government's iron-fisted crackdown on the nationwide protest movement in 2018. And when the eternally fractured opposition finally agreed to field Violeta Chamorro's daughter Cristiana Chamorro to face off Ortega in the November 2021 election, he deployed draconian countermeasures. Chamorro was placed under house arrest — and more than 30 other opposition figures have been detained since June 2021.
Two laws were approved in 2020 to counter acts of subversion and destabilization promoted by foreign actors. The first one was the "Foreign Agents Law", a norm that prohibited non-governmental organizations from financing any type of movement, political party, coalitions, or associations carrying out political activities in Nicaragua. The second was the "Law of Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace" which banned candidatures from people who support international sanctions against the country and its officials.
On May 4, 2021, the Nicaraguan National Assembly (NNA) passed controversial reforms to the electoral law. The reforms failed to incorporate the October 2020 Organization of American States resolution that called for electoral reforms necessary to hold a free, fair, and transparent election in November 2021. The reforms institutionalize repressive laws that enable the government to restrict political parties from participating in the upcoming election and provide no provisions for international electoral observation. The NNA also appointed new Supreme Electoral Council magistrates, most of whom are regime loyalists who have already tightened the Council’s control of the electoral process.
Nicaragua has a highly centralized, authoritarian political system dominated by President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo Zambrana. Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front party exercises total control over the executive, legislative, judicial, and electoral functions. President Ortega was inaugurated to a third term in office in January 2017 following a deeply flawed electoral process. The 2016 elections expanded the ruling party’s supermajority in the National Assembly, which previously allowed for changes in the constitution that extended the reach of executive branch power and the elimination of restrictions on re-election for executive branch officials and mayors. Observers noted serious flaws in municipal, regional, and national elections since 2008. Civil society groups, international electoral experts, business leaders, and religious leaders identified persistent flaws in the 2019 Caribbean regional and 2017 municipal elections and noted the need for comprehensive electoral reform.
Daneil Ortega, who had served as president in the 1980s, returned to power in 2007 and has governed three consecutive terms since. He was now seeking a fourth term. He was once at the forefront of the Sandinista revolution, fighting US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza. Now the former revolutionary junta leader himself has turned into a caricature of Somoza. He has pensioners beaten up and sends police snipers after young demonstrators.
Significant human rights issues included: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings, committed by the government or its agents; forced disappearances by parapolice forces; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by prison guards and parapolice; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detentions by police and parapolice; political prisoners and detainees; politically motivated reprisal against individuals located outside the country; a serious lack of independence of the judiciary; and arbitrary and unlawful interference with privacy. There were serious restrictions on free expression and the press, including threats of violence, censorship, and criminal libel; and substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, as well as severe restrictions on religious freedom, including attacks on the Roman Catholic Church and church officials.
The government continued to block nine nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations from recovering their legal status and illegally withheld their assets, preventing them from operating; during the year the government stripped one more nongovernmental organization of its legal status. Government restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and assembly precluded any meaningful choice in elections. Elections for municipal authorities as well as for president and vice president and National Assembly representatives have been considered marred by fraud and irregularities since 2008. There was widespread corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for violence against women; trafficking in persons; discrimination and violence against ethnic minorities and indigenous communities; threats and attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons; and child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation.
Parapolice and individuals linked to the Ortega regime carried out a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and violence toward perceived enemies of the regime, such as former political prisoners, campesino activists, prodemocracy opposition groups, human rights defenders, and Catholic clergy. Human rights groups alleged that between October 2018 and August, parapolice killed at least 30 campesinos considered to be opponents of the ruling party.
The government did not take steps to identify, investigate, prosecute, or punish officials who committed human rights abuses, including those responsible for at least 325 killings and hundreds of disappearances during the prodemocracy uprising of April 2018. President Ortega actively strengthened impunity for human rights abusers who were loyal to him.
Independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views despite government attempts to restrict and intimidate them. Independent media outlets experienced vandalism, seizure of broadcast equipment, cyberattacks, and criminal defamation charges. The government repeatedly denied broadcasting licenses and other permits for independent media. Further attempts to intimidate came through continued financial audits and attempts by the Directorate General of Revenue to confiscate media channels based on spurious overdue tax debts, which resulted in referral of cases to the Customs and Administrative Tax Court.
Significant state influence, ownership, and control over media continued. National television was largely controlled either by business associates of the president or directly owned and administered by his family members. Eight of the 10 basic channels available were under direct FSLN influence or owned and controlled by persons with close ties to the government. Media stations owned by the presidential family generally limited news programming and served as outlets for progovernment or FSLN propaganda and campaign advertisements.
Independent media faced official and unofficial restrictions, reprisals, and harassment, but they were nonetheless successful in expressing a variety of views. Journalists from many stations were threatened and harassed with the purpose of limiting their editorial independence.
Public universities expelled from school and erased the records of many university students who participated in prodemocracy protests. In many cases, students who went into exile could not continue their studies abroad without their records. Entrances to public universities remained under surveillance by progovernment guards who regularly checked every visitor and often by police. Some university rectors reported university enrollment following the prodemocracy uprising fell to 50 percent of precrisis levels. The public Poly-Technical University (UPOLI) expelled opposition student leader Dolly Mora, claiming security issues. FSLN-controlled student groups at UPOLI harassed Mora and others who in 2018 had protested against the government’s violent crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators. According to reports, leaders of these FSLN-controlled student groups threatened the dean of UPOLI with violence on campus to force Mora’s expulsion.
The law provides for freedom of association, including the right to organize or affiliate with political parties; nevertheless, the Supreme Electoral Council and National Assembly used their accreditation powers for political purposes. National Assembly accreditation was mandatory for NGOs to receive funding, have bank accounts, or employ workers licitly. The Ministry of the Interior has oversight of regulatory compliance by NGOs and provides certificates. Many NGOs that worked on topics of democracy, human rights, and women’s issues complained the ministry purposefully withheld certification to hinder their work and access to funding.
On 15 October 2020, the National Assembly passed a Foreign Agents Law with far-reaching implications for entities and employees of entities receiving funding from outside the country. The new law requires anyone receiving funding from foreign sources to register with the Ministry of the Interior and provide monthly, detailed accounts of how funds are intended to be used. Individuals who register as foreign agents cannot participate in internal politics or run for elected positions for up to one year after being removed from the registry. Failure to register can lead to fines, judicial freezing of assets, and the loss of legal status for associations or NGOs.
The 2019 Caribbean regional and 2017 municipal elections were likewise marred by widespread institutional fraud. The Caribbean regional elections were characterized by heavy security force presence, including antiriot police at polling units, which local press said intimidated voters and led to low turnout. In both elections authorities did not provide domestic civil society organizations accreditation for electoral observation. Opposition party members reported government officials transported FSLN supporters to voting centers. Opposition party members and observers claimed the FSLN used its control over the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) to commit fraud. There were reports of public-sector employees being pressured to vote and show proof the next day at work they had voted. Opposition representatives claimed opposition poll watchers were denied accreditation, FSLN-affiliated poll watchers posed as opposition poll workers, and votes were not counted in accordance with the law.
The EU imposed sanctions on over a dozen Nicaraguans for serious human rights abuses and undermining democracy. Among them is Ortega's wife Rosario Murillo. The EU's accusations against Nicaragua's leadership are heavy-handed and all hit home: allegations of abusing the judiciary for political purposes, excluding opposition candidates from the upcoming election, as well as arbitrarily arresting and repressing civil society actors, members of the press and opposition lawmakers — not to mention the brutal crackdown on the 2018 protest movement.
Civil society groups expressed concerns over the lack of a transparent and fair electoral process leading up to the 2019 Caribbean regional elections. Electoral experts, business leaders, representatives of the Catholic Church, and civil society organizations reported that a lack of accredited domestic observation, in addition to the ruling party’s control over official electoral structures and all branches of government, combined to impede holding a free and fair election.
On 21 December 2020, the National Assembly passed a law that would bar from running for office anyone whom the government designated as a “traitor,” defining the term so broadly that it could be applied to anyone who expressed opposition to the ruling party. The Organization of American States (OAS), European Union, and international human rights groups immediately called for the law to be rescinded, saying its purpose was to limit participation in the 2021 presidential election and deprive voters of their right to choose their leader freely. The law entered into force the next day, four days after President Ortega proposed it.
The FSLN used state resources for political activities to enhance its electoral advantage in recent elections. Independent media, human rights groups, and opposition parties reported the government used public funds to provide subsidized food, housing, vaccinations, access to clinics, and other benefits directly through either FSLN-led “family cabinets” (community-based bodies that administer government social programs) or party-controlled Sandinista leadership committee (CLS) systems, which reportedly coerced citizens into FSLN membership while denying services to opposition members. The FSLN also made party membership mandatory for an increasing number of public-sector employees. Observers noted government employees continued to be pressured into affiliating with the FSLN and to participate in party activities. During the year the government pressured public servants to participate in mass public gatherings including sports events, political rallies, and marches despite independent medical association warnings over the dangers of spreading COVID-19 via mass gatherings.
The FSLN also used its authority to decide who could obtain national identity cards. Persons seeking to obtain or retain public-sector employment, national identity documents, or voter registration were obliged to obtain recommendation letters from CLS block captains. 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 manipulated past elections and that the CSE failed to provide identity cards to opposition members while widely distributing them to party loyalists.
For Ortega, the presidential election in November was just a formality, and he will not take the slightest risk of handing over the reins. The arrest in June 2021 of four critics of his government was a wake-up call for anyone who thought there was still room for negotiating fair elections with the Sandinista regime in Managua. Opposition politicians Felix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastian Chamorro were seeking to run against Ortega in the November election. Nicaraguan Vice President and first lady Rosario Murrillo described the subjects of the investigations as "terrorists" and "criminals." She said "They believe they'll be forever unpunished, but justice will arrive".
Ortega joined the club of authoritarian regimes, from Cuba to China and from Russia to Turkey. He was willing to play the role of the pariah. His international image was less important to him than holding on to power. The United States State Department's acting assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, Julie Chung, said Maradiaga's "arbitrary'' arrest, along with other detentions, "confirm without a doubt that Ortega was a dictator. The international community has no choice but to treat him as such."
Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch (HRW) said "In the last 30 years, I've never seen anything like it. Multilateral efforts are urgently needed to stop Ortega." Human Rights Watch has been notorious for taking a pro-State Department line on Latin America and even contains former State Department personnel on its board of directors.
Ever since Ortega’s party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLNS), was brought back to power via an election in 2006, Washington had channeled tens of millions of dollars through USAID to help opposition groups destabilize the country and overthrow the government. One of the major recipients of this money has been the Chamorro Foundation. Other people arrested by Ortega’s government include: Felix Maradiaga, founder of the Civil Society Leadership Institute, an NGO that has received money from the NED; José Adan Aguerri, former president of the Superior Council for Private Enterprise (COSEP), which has received money from USAID; Violeta Granera, a member of the political council of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB) movement, which journalist Ben Norton has described as “an integral part of the US- and EU-backed efforts to form an opposition alliance”; Arturo Cruz, who is believed to have received money from the US government as part of an effort to impose sanctions on Nicaragua.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “notes with extreme concern that the general elections scheduled for November 2021 are taking place in this climate of repression and closure of the country’s democratic forums, in which, in an unusual manner, all persons who publicly expressed their interest in participating as candidates in the elections were arbitrarily detained and remain detained.”
On 08 November 2021 Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) President Brenda Rocha released the first official results of the presidential elections. After saying that the Nicaraguan people "have been the protagonists of the country's historic civic celebration," she announced the results of the votes counted at the national and provincial levels. With 49.25 percent of the votes counted so far, President Daniel Ortega, who ran for reelection of the position, achieved 74.99 percent of the votes. These results will allow the Santinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) leader to exercise his fifth non-consecutive term from 2022 to 2027. At the national level, 25 percent of the remaining valid votes were distributed as follows: Constitutional Liberal Party candidate Walter Espinoza (14.4 percent), Liberal Alliance Party candidate Marcelo Montiel (3.4 percent), Christian Road Party Guillermo Osorno (3.4 percent), Alliance for the Republic Gerson Gutierrez (2.2 percent), and Independent Liberal Party candidate Mauricio Orue (1.7 percent).
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro highlighted the democratic character of the Nicaraguan elections and congratulated the re-election of President Daniel Ortega."The Venezuelan people send solidarity hugs and congratulations to President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo for their legitimate re-election," the Bolivarian leader said and pointed out the unobjectionable victory of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).... “Through the democratic instrument of the vote, Nicaragua ratified its independence and self-determination. It ratified to the world its willingness to continue a peacefull political process that has restored fundamental human rights that were deprived by the imposition of neoliberalism.... “The people of Sandino and Dario have given the greatest demonstration of love for their country, political maturity, and popular resistance in the face of the titanic pressures of the Imperialism, which has tried in every way possible to restrict their right to choose, in freedom and without blackmailing, their national authorities."
Ortega's new term will begin in January 2022. The elections were marked by arbitrary arrests of activists and journalists, among other acts of harassment, coercion and political violence. Press freedom has also been in the government’s crosshairs, and the media have denounced restrictions and obstacles that have made it impossible for them to carry out their work. Several Nicaraguan civil society organizations and movements called for a citizen’s electoral strike in the country and protests in other countries. The media reported low voter turnout, and Nicaraguans mobilized in several cities around the world denouncing the serious human rights crisis and the impossibility of exercising political rights in Nicaragua.
“Once again, the people of Nicaragua find themselves in a situation where voicing criticism of the government puts them at grave risk. In the last few years, we’ve witnessed first-hand the plot of a horror thriller developing in the country, where deadly police repression, wrongful imprisonment, ill-treatment, harassment and criminalization of human rights defenders and journalists are common practices, all of them endorsed by a judiciary without independence and a National Assembly that exists only to rubberstamp Daniel Ortega’s repressive agenda,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.
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