The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo paved the way to once again hold elections in Nicaragua tailored to their needs and with the absolute dominance of the Electoral Power, which for Arturo McFields, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) , will be a “Cuban-style elections.”
McFields refers to the elimination of any loophole of opposition that included the cancellation of legal personality to a political party, the fierce hunt for opponents and the police state imposed throughout the country. To this should be added the irregularities in the electoral process that the organization Urnas Abiertas has documented.
Municipal votes are scheduled for this Sunday, November 6. They will be held in an environment marked by the sociopolitical crisis that has dragged on the country since 2018 and that was accentuated by the 2021 presidential elections, the results of which were unknown by more than 40 countries in the international community.
Related news: “Let’s stay at home”, the call of opponents to Nicaraguans
“(The) Nicaraguan dictatorship is preparing to hold Cuban-style elections. Without observation, without competition and without credibility. Police and Sandinista militancy watch over those who do not vote, write them down and label them to follow up, as I said just like in Cuba », the former diplomat wrote on his Twitter account, from where he criticizes the Ortega Murillo administration.
The call not to vote
Various Nicaraguan opposition groups have called on citizens not to go to the polls or join the “electoral circus” of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
“For the families separated by poverty and the Nicaraguans who have had to flee their own country, by repression and unemployment, on November 6 let’s stay at home,” reads a video broadcast on social networks and WhatsApp.
For these votes, the CSE eliminated 5,528 Vote Receiving Boards (JRV) for municipal votes. In addition, it will only enable 7,931 JRV, while in the national voting last year it had 13,459, according to the Electoral Power in its Web page.
The disputed municipal votes will cost Nicaraguans 31.1 million dollars. 40% of that total is earmarked for the payment of electoral campaign expenses to political parties, the most benefited would be the FSLN due to the high percentage of votes assigned to it by the CSE.
This year the Electoral Register is made up of 3 million 722 thousand 884 citizens, a figure much lower than the 4 million 478 thousand 334 voters for the 2021 elections: 755 thousand 450 people eligible to vote taken out of a pit by the dictatorship, according to the documentation that the CSE delivered to the political parties.
The number of Voting Centers (CV) will be the same as the national elections of 2021: 3 thousand 106, last year it had already reduced the CVs by 1 thousand 202 less than in the municipal elections of 2017.
The CSE assured that they were printed 4.8 million ballots for the elections. Although the number of printed ballots was revealed, it is still hidden how much was paid to the company Inversiones Papeleras, SA, (Inpasa) and what was the mechanism to award the millionaire tender.
