Following allegations of irregularities, the Ortega regime published the register of voters for the elections in Nicaragua

Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) published the electoral list for the contested legislative elections next November on Sunday, in which the country’s dictator, Daniel ortega, will run for his fifth term and fourth in a row, without the participation of the main opposition alliance, and with seven presidential candidates arrested.

In a Twitter post, the electorate reported that deposited copies of the electoral rolls in the polling centers where Nicaraguans over 16, the minimum age to exercise the right to vote, attended a Citizens Verification Day 15 days ago.

Over 2.82 million Nicaraguans visited 3,106 voting centers to check if they could exercise their right to vote or activate their voting rights, out of a total of 4.34 million possibleaccording to the CSE, controlled by supporters of Ortega.

The publication of the register took place after the NGO Urnas Abiertas denounced serious irregularities in the electoral lists before the November elections, between them “excessive distances in the new Polling Centers, State agents constrained, Political violence, lack of adequate protocols for the prevention of covid-19, use of public resources and political proselytism in Polling Centers, and deceased persons in the register. Thus, according to the agency, In Nicaragua, there are no conditions for the holding of free and transparent elections.

Eliminate the main opposition bloc

Last Friday, the electoral tribunal has decided to annul the legal personality of the Citizens for Freedom party (CxL), who led, with an indigenous party and a civil organization, the main opposition electoral alliance, with what was left out in the electoral process.

This decision was criticized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Oacnudh), who warned that eliminating political parties “does not meet human rights standards and is incompatible with free and fair elections.”

The United States has also criticized this decision, which he described as “the regime’s undemocratic and authoritarian” and “as the coup de grace to the prospect of Nicaragua holding free and fair elections this year”.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, called the measure an “autocratic maneuver” and stressed that it revealed the “desire” of dictator Ortega, and his wife and vice-president, Rosario Murillo, to remain in power “at all costs”.

“This electoral process, including its possible results, has lost all credibility”, he pointed out.

Seven candidates arrested

In the current electoral process Nicaraguan authorities arrested more than 30 opposition leaders, including seven presidential candidates who are under investigation for alleged “treason”.

the The Electoral Council also annulled the legal personality of three political parties, and Parliament, where the ruling party has the absolute majority, reformed the electoral law, which established greater control over the electoral structure in favor of the Sandinistas.

Nicaragua, a country of 6.5 million inhabitants, will elect its president, vice-president, 90 national deputies and 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament on November 7.

Ortega, a former Sandinista guerrilla about to turn 76, returned to power in 2007 after coordinating a government junta from 1979 to 1984 and first presiding over the country between 1985 and 1990, he accused the opposition leaders of trying to overthrow him with the support of the United States and called them “criminals”.

(With information from EFE)

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