The first provisional report of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), controlled by the Ortega, indicates that Daniel Ortega is reelected president of Nicaragua with 74.99% of the votes, in a tailor-made election questioned by lack of competition, imprisonment of opponents and the widespread repression against civil society and the independent media.
Brenda Rocha, president of the CSE, read the results at two in the morning and affirmed that with 49.25% of the votes counted, the FSLN obtained more than one million votes and its closest “rival” was the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) got 14.40% of the votes.
With seven aspiring opposition presidential candidates in prison, accused of “treason,” Ortega, in power since 2007, would predictably be declared the winner.
Of the 13,459 Vote Receiving Boards (JRV) installed, the CSE detailed that they have counted 6,629, equivalent to 49.25%, and it has 6,830 pending, equivalent to 50.75% of the votes.
The total estimated votes are 1,424,642. Of these, 1,352,556 are considered valid and the report indicates that there were 72,086 invalid votes.
The report gives the other collaborationist parties less than 4% of the valid votes. Nicaraguan Christian Way (CCN) with 3.44% of votes, Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) with 3.27%, Alliance for the Republic (APRE) obtained 2.20% and the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) with 1.70% of votes.
According to the CSE controlled by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, there was a citizen participation of 65.34% of the electorate, with less than half of the Vote Receiving Boards scrutinized. However, reports from citizens and independent media showed a low influx of citizens throughout the day. The Urnas Abiertas Citizen Observatory estimated abstention at 81.5%.
Ortega summoned a mandatory national network, after exercising his vote, and described this Sunday’s voting as “a sign and a commitment of the majority for peace.”
In the event transmitted from the voting center established in the El Carmen district, that 49 “elections” have been held in the country since 1984, when he first elected to the Presidency and attacked the opposition that called for a change of government in 2018 after the massive protests against him, which he described as acts of terrorism, and which his regime appeased with repression and massacre.
International condemnation
“In the absence of conditions and guarantees required in democracy to accredit the elections as transparent, credible, independent, free, fair and inclusive, Costa Rica does not recognize the electoral process in Nicaragua, which took place on November 7, 2021,” said the Government of Costa Rica, a few hours after the closure of the JRV in the country, on a day marked by the lack of freedoms, in which Daniel Ortega is re-elected for a fourth consecutive presidential term, along with his wife, vice president and spokesperson, Rosario Murillo.
“Costa Rica reiterates that the actions deployed by the Government of Nicaragua against important political and social actors, opposition leaders, youth groups, and the media in that country, contravened the free exercise of democracy, the guarantee of political pluralism and freedom of expression. “Said the statement, released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship.
Earlier on Sunday, the president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden Jr., described the voting as “a pantomime that was neither free nor fair,” while announcing that his government will use all economic and diplomatic tools, in coordination with other members of the international community, to hold Daniel Ortega’s regime accountable for its abuses.
In a statement about “The mock elections” of the Central American country, Biden denounced Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, current vice president and spokeswoman for the regime, as autocrats who rule the country with a style not different from that used by the Somoza family, which the same Sandinista ruler helped overthrow 40 years ago. when I was a guerrilla.
The declaration of the Democratic leader occurs when criticism of a process considered a farce by sectors critical of Ortega multiplies in the international community, but also when Biden, according to US legislative sources, would have in his office to sign the Renacer Act, which toughens sanctions against the Nicaraguan dictatorship.
This legislative norm provides new tools to sanction Ortega and his group, for the refusal to offer free elections to Nicaraguans, but also puts under supervision the international credits to which the country accesses with multilateral organizations and raises the review on the Nicaragua’s participation in the free trade agreement of the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic.
Although Biden does not refer specifically to the case of the Renacer Law, which has already completed its path through Congress on November 3, he exposes his position on the abuses committed by Ortega.
“The arbitrary imprisonment of nearly 40 opposition figures since May, including seven potential presidential candidates, and the blocking of political party participation manipulated the outcome long before election day. They shut down independent media, locked up journalists and members of the private sector, and intimidated civil society organizations into closing their doors, ”Biden lamented.
