Daniel Ortega is running for a third term.
Last week, Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council
ousted 16 opposition legislators from the Liberal Independent Party and its ally the Sandinista Renovation Movement Friday for not recognizing their officially sanctioned leader. That leader, Pedro Reyes, had recently been given that authority by theSupreme Court, which removed the opposition party’s previous leader following a long-running political dispute. Reyes is seen by some within his own party as a tool of Ortega.
The 16 legislators removed from their seats supported the party’s former leader Eduardo Montealegre and refused to recognize Reyes, who said the vacant seats will be filled by party members who recognize him.
Carlos Langrand, one of the ousted lawmakers, said through his Twitter account: “We have been unseated for not lowering our heads before the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega.”
You could call it a coup; indeed, the Twitter handle is #GolpeEnNicaragua.
Yesterday Ortega named his wife, Rosario Murillo, age 65, as his running mate, keeping it all in the family
Mr Ortega, 70, is a former left-wing guerrilla who formed part of the government junta following the Sandinista revolution against the dictatorship of the Somoza family, which ruled Nicaragua for four decades.
The Cuban-inspired Sandinistas seized power in 1979.Since returning to office nearly a decade ago, Ortega has methodically and completely dismantled Nicaragua’s fragile institutional democracy from within and reshaped the laws in a way that support his personal aspirations to create a one-party system that he can govern unopposed till death do they part. By hook and crook, Ortega and his lackeys have taken control of all four branches of government, implemented a repressive zero-tolerance policy for street protests, and rewritten the constitution to eliminate checks and balances.
The party lost elections in the 1990s, but Mr Ortega returned to power in January 2007, after a successful election campaign.
Tim Rogers writes about Why we should care that Nicaragua is becoming a dictatorship (again)
Since returning to office nearly a decade ago, Ortega has methodically and completely dismantled Nicaragua’s fragile institutional democracy from within and reshaped the laws in a way that support his personal aspirations to create a one-party system that he can govern unopposed till death do they part. By hook and crook, Ortega and his lackeys have taken control of all four branches of government, implemented a repressive zero-tolerance policy for street protests, and rewritten the constitution to eliminate checks and balances.
Rogers’s point is that democracy matters.
But, when it comes down to Nicaragua, nobody seems to care.
