Nicaragua's president has moved from undermining elections to openly vowing to end them. At a rally on Sunday marking the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, 80-year-old Daniel Ortega told supporters, "There will never be elections here again," accusing his opponents of using the ballot box as a tool to "seize power," per the New York Times. The declaration casts serious doubt on a presidential vote expected next year and strips away any remaining pretense of democracy in the country of about 7 million. Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo—now co-president after a constitutional change—already dominate Nicaragua's institutions, from Congress to the courts and the military.
Rights groups and the UN accuse their government of rigging past votes, dismantling checks and balances, jailing critics and rivals, and violently crushing protests, especially since 2018. Former presidential contender Felix Maradiaga, who was arrested, barred from the 2021 race, and later exiled to the US, said Ortega—who's been in power for nearly two decades—"buried" democracy long ago and warned the world not to expect change through the ballot box, predicting only an "electoral charade" at best.
Ortega, appearing frail in a rare public outing, promised new laws to further block what he called "coup plotters" and "sellouts." "With this decision, Ortega and Murillo have sealed the country's transition to a full-fledged family dictatorship," says Tiziano Breda of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data NGO, per the Guardian. The AP notes that the United States does not recognize Ortega's presidency.
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