The Nicaraguan opposition denounced that the electoral process is “illegitimate” and asked for the support of the international community

One month before the general elections in Nicaragua, Opposition organizations on Thursday declared their “repudiation and ignorance” of the electoral process, deeming it “illegitimate and void”.. At the same time, they urged the The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends the government of Daniel Ortega.

In a statement issued in Costa Rica, opponents assured that there are no conditions for free elections on November 7, since Ortega and his wife, the vice-president Rosario Murillo, tried to “put an end to any vestige of a real electoral competition, leading to the imprison seven presidential candidates, force two others into exile and annul the legal status of the last three opposition political parties.

The declaration is signed by organizations such as the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB), Nicaraguan Democratic Front (FDN), Democratic Union for Renewal (UNAMOS), Campesino Movement (MC), Articulation of Social Movements (AMS), Initiative for Change (IPC) and groups of Nicaraguan exiles.

After interviewing the “Brutal repression” triggered by the social rebellion of April 2018, opponents accused the government of keeping in prison “more than 156 political prisoners, subject to torture, cruel and degrading treatment“And to ‘forcibly displace more than 140,000 Nicaraguans’ forced into exile over the past three years.

The statement urged OAS member countries to “exert the necessary diplomatic and economic pressure” on the Nicaraguan government and to “suspend the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship from the organization. until real elections are held that meet all the standards and requirements ”of the hemispherical body.

The opponents they called on the United Nations, the European Union “and all democratic countries in the world, to join in a collective condemnation for the systematic violation of the human rights of Nicaraguans, for declaring the illegitimacy of the electoral process and for ignoring the results of the electoral farce mounted by the dictatorship of Ortega-Murillo ”.

They also asked “Exert effective pressure” and “increase sanctions” against officials accused of human rights violations, and condition the disbursement of financial resources to “the release of all political prisoners and the annulment of illegal trials, the restoration of constitutional freedoms for all Nicaraguans” and the approval of “genuine electoral reform and legitimate elections”.

In a message to Nicaraguans, the opponents asked them “to remain united without losing hope”, and to support “the political prisoners and to all the victims of repression and their families ”.

Last month, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, the United States, France, the Dominican Republic and the United Kingdom said in a statement that in Nicaragua, there are no conditions for holding “free and fair” elections.

The Nicaraguan government maintains that he is the victim of “insulting and terrorist campaigns” promoted by opponents and “financed by the Yankee empire”, with the aim of repeating the social revolt of 2018, which Ortega called “A failed coup”.

Ortega, almost 76, goes to get her the third re-election continues and the second for Murillo as candidates for the ruling Sandinista Front party. The former guerrilla was first president between 1985 and 1990, and returned to power in 2007.

In these elections Ortega will compete with six minority political parties, several of which are already allies of the Sandinistas in Parliament. after having ordered the imprisonment since last June of presidential candidates who would be registered by the main opposition blocs.

A total of 4,478,334 Nicaraguans over the age of 16 can vote, according to the electoral list updated by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), which will allow 3,106 voting centers across the country. Nicaragua has a population of 6.5 million.

In elections a president, a vice-president, 91 members of the National Assembly and 20 of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).

(With AP information)

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