The most recent editorial presented by Urnas Abiertas reports that in 2021 an electoral supercycle began in Latin America that will last until 2024, in which all the countries of the region will have presidential and legislative elections, with the exception of Bolivia.
“This opens up new possibilities to reconfigure the regional geopolitical chessboard, partly due to a change in the correlation of forces, and partly as a punishment for the outgoing governments, as we have seen recently in Honduras, Costa Rica and Chile; or how we could be witnessing it in Colombia and Brazil », details the organization’s letter.
Related news: In insomnia at dawn, Daniel Ortega’s son “delirious” with imposing a single-party regime
Olga Valle, from Urnas Abiertas told Article 66, that Nicaragua “is one of the governments that has regressed in terms of the country’s democratic conditions.” On November 7, 2021, presidential elections were held without any guarantees and with dozens of political prisoners, and in 2022 there will be municipal elections, where there is no chance that they will be democratic.
According to the organization, despite the serious crisis in which representative democracy and the political party system are currently in some Latin American countries, the truth is that electoral processes involve electoral competition, political campaigns, presentation of programs, debates presidential elections, oversight of public discourse and citizen mobilizations, something that in Nicaragua, the Ortega regime does not allow.
“In addition, the institutional mechanisms to reconfigure the political system, change the constitutions, initiate justice processes and resolve electoral disputes, everything that is not possible in Nicaragua, still work, to a lesser or greater extent,” he details.
Democracy at risk
In the same analysis, they affirm that Nicaragua, as part of the electoral super cycle, faces a series of situations that put its democracy at risk, assuming that it is not possible to vote or protest in the country.
«The first step to recover democracy is the lifting of the police state and the unrestricted respect for fundamental freedoms, which includes the freedom of all political prisoners, since it is under these conditions that the country can find possibilities for change, typical of the electoral supercycle in which it is inserted, “explains Open Ballot Boxes.
Related news: Politicians in exile say Daniel Ortega has become a “high-risk authoritarian president”
“In this 2022, another electoral year for Nicaragua, it is up to the democratic forces to be up to the times, to demand that any democratic process takes place under adequate conditions and to guarantee broad citizen participation that listens to social demands, which demand more and better democracy, and less inequality”, they emphasize.
Seven months before the municipal elections are held in Nicaragua, experts affirm that it is important to guarantee that all political forces can participate, that no one is forced to vote, or suffers repression when doing so, and that their votes are counted transparently, as well as the possibility of mobilizing, of being heard in the streets, of pressing for what is expected of the institutions.
“In Nicaragua, it is appropriate to demand an electoral process that opens the way for a transition with justice and freedom, accepting less than this is not understanding the historical moment in which we find ourselves,” the editorial concludes.
For Olga Valle, Nicaragua is not the only country where human rights are violated, “but the seriousness of violations that occur in our country cannot be denied. Given these characteristics, we propose that we have to demand democratic conditions, because we see great democratic changes in our neighboring countries as a result of their elections.
