After the approval of the reform to the Electoral Law, Kitty Monterrey, president of the extinct Citizens for Freedom (CxL) party, pointed out that the modifications to Law 131 “are vitiated from the beginning” and with these changes the administration of Daniel Ortega seeks «save resources, increasingly scarce in an economy in crisis».
The political leader, through her account Twitter, He stated that “an electoral reform that does not guarantee free and transparent elections is not a reform, it is flawed from the start. In addition, it is a legal recognition of the police state, of the absence of voters and of the discretionary control of electoral officials over the process.
This Thursday, May 5, the National Assembly, controlled by the Ortega deputies, approved a reform to the Electoral Law a few months before the municipal elections of November 2022. The proposal, presented by the group of 75 Sandinista parliamentarians, It consists of the modification of 10 articles: 16, 21, 22, 70, 74, 85, 105, 148 and 158 of Law 131.
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According to the document, the changes are to “expedite” and “improve” various aspects of the electoral process in the municipal voting that will take place in less than six months, including changing the timing of the campaigns, distribution of seats and increasing the number of voters by the Vote Receiving Board (JRV).
Kitty Monterrey assured that in Nicaragua, a country where freedom of expression and demonstrations are prohibited, shortening the time of the electoral campaign “facilitates police control over any expression of dissent, and has no effect on a party system where the opposition was outlawed’.
He stressed that Ortega “is preparing for a very high abstention” on the next election day in November 2022, in the municipal elections, therefore he has sought to “increase the number of registered by JRV from 400 to 600, since following the pattern of participation in the voting of November 2021, with 600 registered, it will be difficult to reach 100 voters per table ».
By expanding the number of voters in the JRV, the regime intends to sell the image of a greater influx of voters, since the 2021 presidential elections were singled out and criticized for the low number of citizens who left the ballot boxes empty as a form of “resistance against electoral fraud”.
The electoral reform also modifies the use and application of indelible ink, which will be impregnated throughout the fingertip and not as it had been applied at the base of the nail, allowing it to be erased more easily.
“In this way, the Ortega regime saves increasingly scarce resources in an economy in crisis and strengthens its control over a process that lacks meaning and credibility, which has been reduced to a mere formality,” Monterrey concluded.