With a growing impact of repression and without independent electoral authorities, the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) registered this Friday, August 19, its alliance of parties with which it will participate in the local voting on November 6, in which the electoral authorities will appoint the mayors of the 153 municipalities throughout the national territory.
The legal representative of the FSLN, deputy Edwin Castro, presented himself to the Council Supreme Electoral (CSE) to take the first step of a process that will last 81 daysaccording to the electoral calendar published in the official gazette La Gaceta, on August 18.
According to the official schedule, the candidates will register provisionally between 3 and next September 9 and his final application will be made on September 22, then of the objection period.
For former deputy Eliseo Núñez, the only question is whether the FSLN will capture 100% of the municipalities, given that they already control 90%, after dispossessing five municipalities of Ciudadanos por la Libertad (CxL) last July, with the help of the Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development (Inifom) and the Police.
“I would not dare to call them municipal elections. What there is is an authoritarian exercise of change of municipal authorities, which basically depend on the Executive, where there is no there is opposition participation. I am one of those who believe that the result of this change should be observed, because if 100% of the mayors remain with the FSLN, we would be facing a more transcendental change, that Ortega would have already abandoned his hegemonic party model and would be betting on the single party,” explained Núñez.
The former legislator added that the total capture of the municipalities would have different consequences, because it would place Nicaragua on the path to eliminate the elections as we know them today and would open the doors for Ortega to make a reform so that the processes are carried out as in Cuba, his political ally, where it is chosen within the ruling party and no one outside has the right to apply.
Enrollment in a context of repression
The registration of the electoral alliances took place hours after the Police assaulted the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa to kidnap the bishop of the diocese, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who had been kept locked up in the building while they investigated him for “organize violent groups” and “foster hatred”.
Since last June, the regime has intensified the repression against the Catholic Church, imprisoning three priests, closing seven radio stations in the Diocese of Matagalpa, besieging parishes such as Sébaco and Darío in an attempt to silence the religious.
The researcher Olga Valle, director of Urnas Abiertas, an organization that monitors State violence in the country and the conditions for holding electoral processes clean, considered that Nicaragua is getting ready for a process that is neither legitimate nor integral, starting by pointing out that the electoral authorities are not independent, but the preference of the voter is not respected either and in the case of state workers they are forced to support the FSLN and send evidence to the party coordinators, showing that they voted.
“It cannot be mentioned that they are transparent elections, because there is no way of supervising the process, because the possibility of supervising the process was eliminated, the possibility of international observation was eliminated, nor do local non-official organizations have the possibility to inspect, while anyone who approaches is repressed,” Valle emphasized.
According to the researcher, it is worrying how there has been an escalation of repression against the Catholic Church, the media, which constitutes further proof that There are conditions to guarantee that the elections are going to be legitimate, because “no election held under a state of terror like Nicaragua’s can be classified as such.”
Regime accommodated the pieces to suit you
In the run-up to the electoral call, the National Assembly, controlled by the ruling party, approved a reform to the Electoral Law in which it established an express electoral process. The Electoral Power is controlled by the government party, the Police —the main repressive body of the regime— is the one who authorizes political rallies, electoral observation is null and those who could aspire to positions of popular election remain deprived of liberty.
Although the electoral process was barely called by the CSE on August 16, the FSLN and the parties collaborating with the regime have been preparing for several months outside the law, as documented by the Urnas Abiertas observatory. The ruling party even summoned its supporters for a citizen verification process on August 13 and 14, but later changed its orientation and indicated that the process would be carried out virtually.
With the publication of the electoral calendar this Thursday, August 18, it was confirmed that the CSE effectively suppressed the verification process, which had been carried out with the aim of purging the electoral roll. But that same day, a text message from the CSE began to arrive on cell phones, with a Nicaraguan number, inviting citizens to verify themselves on their website.
Also the collaborationist parties “have been working for several months based on the municipal elections, despite the silence and secrecy kept by the authorities” of the CSE, said Urnas Abiertas. His political activities were not harassed by the Police.
