The Ortega-supported Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) is working against the clock to deliver identity cards to new Nicaraguan citizens prior to the disputed municipal votes on November 6. According to statistics disclosed by the same Electoral Power, in three weeks they issued 22 thousand 218 new identity documents. In the first eight months of the year, when there are less than three months to go before the elections, the CSE granted 96,265 identification cards for the first time, that is, new voters for this year’s elections.
According to the third municipal voting bulletin, the Electoral Power has carried out 461 thousand procedures in the ID offices from January 3 to September 9 of this year: 163 thousand were renewals, 201 thousand 736 replacements and the rest were applications for the first time. time, according to the official note.
Related news: CSE has delivered more than 400 thousand certificates prior to its municipal electoral “farce”
Between January 3 and August 9, 74,000 new certificates had been issued. But in three weeks the number grew to 96,265, which would mean a hasty delivery of identity documents for more than 22,000 new citizens, at a rate of more than 1,000 ID cards issued per day, taking into account that the CSE offices from Monday to Sunday. The electoral court is accused of executing and directing an “electoral farce” in which the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) is expected to gain absolute control of the country’s 153 mayoralties.
The FSLN is accused of handing out identity cards to young people who are old enough to exercise their right to vote. These actions would be carried out from house to house in the neighborhoods, through the Sandinista Leadership Councils (CLS). In some homes they gather the young people, take their photographs, fill out the application form for the ID and a week later they give them the identity document that enables them to vote.
This year’s election calendar includes 37 activities for the municipal voting process. The period for presentation and registration of candidates for mayors, deputy mayors and councilors is from September 3 to 6. The CSE abolished the dates of citizen verification, the fixing of the register in the Voting Centers and the mechanisms to object to the electoral cartography, denounced the independent observatory Open Ballot Boxes.
Last year, the dictatorship ordered the cancellation of the legal personality of three political parties, eliminating with this action the box of the main opposition groups: Conservative Party (PC), Democratic Restoration Party (PRD) and Citizens for Freedom (CxL). .
After the votes and with allegations of irregularities, the CSE decided to eliminate the legal status of the Christian Path Party, a former FSLN ally. In addition, the operating permits for Enlace Canal 21 and a radio station were cancelled, both religious media outlets and one of the few that operated in the country.
