Nicaragua will experience another electoral process next month, exactly one year after the general elections of November 2021, which gave way to the fourth consecutive term of Daniel Ortega, president since 2007.
The November 6 elections will be municipal, in which mayors, deputy mayors and members of the deliberative councils will be elected in 153 mayoralties, of which, since 2017, 135 are in the hands of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
In addition, since the beginning of July of this year, five more have come under the control of the FSLN when opposition mayors were removed to appoint,
de facto
, co-religionists of the ruling party.
The expectation of change with these elections is certainly less high than that of last year, although the importance of these elections is not less given that the results could imply the definitive decline of democratic pluralism, from which Nicaragua already suffers.
For the institutionality it will also be a radical blow.
At the national level, the Sandinista government already has control over the other three branches of government.
Soon, that influence would take over the entire municipal structure.
The question that arises at this time is whether this electoral process will have the same features with which the OAS characterized the presidential suffrage of 2021. The OAS General Assembly concluded, by 25 votes in favor, seven abstentions and only one vote against of Nicaragua, that those elections “were not free, fair or transparent and did not [have] democratic legitimacy.”
The answer seems obvious, since conditions have not changed or, according to available information, have even worsened at the local level.
This year, through Law 1116, the National Assembly reformed the Electoral Law —which had already been reformed in 2021 for the presidential elections—, but did not modify the provisions that unduly restrict the rights of political participation and public freedoms.
Therefore, precepts are still in force that oblige the parties to request police authorization to meet with their supporters in a rally during the campaign (Art. 89.1), or that prohibit citizens from holding demonstrations, which are reserved only for those who will compete in elections (Art. 95).
Law 1116 reduced the duration of the electoral campaign by more than half, from 42 to 20 days.
In a context like the current one, in which the ruling party controls 92% of the mayoralties and is running for 111 acting mayors and deputy mayors, this reduction would affect other political options that, as has been denounced, would not have enough time to make themselves known or to disseminate and discuss their proposals with the electorate.
This would be a disadvantage in terms of the general conditions of equality in access to the public function, a right recognized by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The municipal contest will not have the participation of the three political parties that were arbitrarily canceled by the Supreme Electoral Council in 2021. One of them, Citizens for Freedom, administered until July a quarter of the opposition mayors.
It is predictable that many candidates willing to serve and contribute to the development of their communities will not participate either, since the imprisonment of seven presidential candidates and other political and social leaders months before the 2021 general elections — today condemned as traitors to the country — It's not exactly an encouragement to apply.
In recent times, the repression in the country has been more blatant outside the capital, especially vehement in certain municipalities, such as Masaya, where in September a deployment of hundreds of police officers prevented the processions in honor of their patron saint.
Weeks earlier, in Sébaco and Matagalpa, 15 people, including priests and lay people, were held by the security forces in ecclesiastical settings for between 3 and 15 days, respectively.
Currently, eight of these people, including the Bishop of Matagalpa, are in preventive detention or under house arrest under criminal investigation for having allegedly tried to organize violent groups with the purpose of destabilizing the State and attacking the authorities.
In September, in the municipalities of Jinotepe, Juigalpa, Managua, Matagalpa, Nagarote and Nueva Guinea, the police arrested members of UNAMOS, a party with origins in a split from the FSLN more than 25 years ago.
Although UNAMOS does not have legal recognition to participate in the elections, it is one of the most influential political organizations in the country.
In addition to capturing ten of its members in the last month, the police have also arbitrarily detained the spouses, children and siblings of other members, sending the implicit and explicit message that they will not be released until their family member of the party is released. hand over to the authorities.
This unspeakable action has occurred in more than one case, adding to the patterns of political persecution that have been practiced in Nicaragua since 2018.
The latest wave of repression has not excluded the local media.
According to civil society, among the 26 media outlets closed in Nicaragua so far this year, 23 operated in 19 municipalities in the departments of Chinandega, Estelí, Jinotega, León, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia and Río San Juan, and in the Autonomous Regions. of the South and North Caribbean Coast.
Closing those radio and television stations means, with a view to the municipal elections, restricting channels of communication, information and discussion on matters of public interest.
Organized civil society at the local level has also not escaped the fierce state attack to reduce civic and democratic space.
Of the more than 2,514 organizations that in 2022 have suffered the cancellation of their legal personality —an unprecedented figure according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association—, a good part operated in neglected municipalities and far from the capital, including those on the Atlantic Coast with a large indigenous and Afro-descendant population.
These are some of the elements that make up the scenario prior to the municipal elections on November 6, after which Nicaragua could be even more subject to a government that is resistant to discrepancy and pluralism and that will concentrate all political power in its hands. , which contradicts basic principles of a democratic State of law.
For this reason, the international community cannot leave the people of Nicaragua alone, who for decades have fought, and continue to fight, for the recognition of their rights and to return to living in a true democracy.
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