“Stay at home” becomes the slogan of the Nicaraguan opposition to face the electoral farce of Daniel Ortega

Nicaragua is less than a month away from what the OAS secretary general called “The worst possible choices” and a group of opposition organizations this week called on the international community to to ignore the legitimacy of the process and its results because “they prevent the Nicaraguan people from democratically electing their next authorities”.

The Nicaraguan opposition, which has been characterized by rivalries between different groups, met this Thursday through its most recognized organizations, to express the “Repudiation and ignorance“Legislative elections in November which will be held in a process which considers “Illegitimate and void.” The same time launched a campaign for citizens to voice their protest by staying at home on election day.

Before the international community ignores the legitimacy of Daniel Ortega’s re-election under these conditions, citizens must first do so, explains Jesús Téfel, member of the opposition organization Unidad Azul y Blanco (UNAB). “The question of legitimacy starts at home. Nicaraguans must recognize that the process is not legitimate, by not participating and denouncing, but then all the management of international advocacy begins so that more and more governments add to the ignorance of the regime.“, dice.

For November 7, Nicaraguans should choose the president and vice-president who will govern the country for the next five years, as well as 92 deputies of the National Assembly. However, the Nicaraguan opposition denounced that there were no conditions for free elections because Last May, Daniel Ortega’s regime approved electoral reforms restricting citizen participation, formed an electoral tribunal composed only of people loyal to its regime, eliminated election observation, banned the two opposition parties and jailed the seven main ones. opposition candidates.

“We are facing a process of total exclusion, by de facto means, which does not enjoy legitimacy by all international standards and with the same legitimacy that the Nicaraguan people would expect,” Tefel said.

In recent weeks, according to Jesús Téfel, the Nicaraguan opposition has debated the best method for citizens who had no electoral options to express their protest against the process they consider illegitimate: “the null vote” or “abstention”. “The null vote, go to the polls and cancel the vote to show that they are not in favor of Ortega, that they do not believe in the process and that there is no credible candidate. ‘other option is not to attend the voting process’.

Abstention prevailed in the debate. “This time, almost all the groups agree,” said the Nicaraguan opponent in exile. “The debate occupied the spaces for dialogue in previous weeks, but today there is a fairly general consensus. None of the opposition organizations promote any participation in this process, although there are some that promote it more actively than others that do not participate, staying at home.

“The advantages of a null vote are that we can organize a mobilization of citizens and actively participate in disobedience, manifest the rejection of the regime. On the other hand, since there is no international observation, because there is no control, because there is nothing to guarantee how this invalid vote will be counted, this opens all the possibilities. possibilities for Ortega to be able to accredit the invalid vote in his favor without Nobody can deny it and to use the large queues of citizen participation as proof to say that people attended the polls to legitimize the process ”, explains -he.

“In case of abstention, staying at home is a safer action, which immediately shows that they do not agree with anything about the process, to the point that they did not even bother to participate. because they think it’s a sham.a, a parody, a simple procedure adapted to the dictatorship and that is why it sends a message which recognizes neither the process nor its results, ”he adds.

Seven political parties and alliances will participate in the November elections, including the ruling Sandinista Front which is proposing the re-election of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo and a group of small parties which have been allies or collaborators of Ortega. In Nicaragua, it is commonly called “Mosquitoes” to this type of party, because they participate in the elections, without any chance of winning, to simulate competition in exchange for a budget or advice.

Guillermo Osorno is the candidate of Camino Cristiano, a party that participates this time alone, despite the fact that in the last two legislative elections he was an ally of the Sandinista Front.

Osorno criticized, in an interview with the portal IP Nicaragua, those who advocate abstention. “Anyone who opposes the vote won at the polls is on the side of the Sandinista Front. If you don’t vote for me, vote for others. If it is that the Sandinista Front has hurt and disturbed, then do not vote for them, but vote for the other options, but do not abstain from voting if we really want a free and transformed Nicaragua, ”he said. declared.

Jesús Téfel considers that “it will not be an easy task” to achieve the illegitimacy of the re-election of Daniel Ortega. “While there is a consensus that the process is not legitimate, it does not necessarily mean that governments will rush to sever relations with Ortega. International diplomacy does not work like that, but it will be a job to convince, to accumulate allies so that Ortega is declared illegitimate. “

For Téfel, it is vital that the opposition is united, as happened this week when Nicaragua’s main opposition organizations emerged at a conference in San José, Costa Rica, integrating a bloc that they called “Nicaraguan democratic opposition” to express their rejection of the November “electoral farce”.

“How is the international community going to view Ortega as illegitimate if there is no alternative? “Governments, although they condemn dictatorships, violators of human rights, those who do not respect democracy, are more afraid of creating power vacuum and generating chaos in countries. The opposition has the responsibility to form a counterpart to the dictatorship so that the international community has an interlocutor and the certainty that a power vacuum would not be generated in the event of opening of the possibility of a transition ”.

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