The former politician Levis Joshua Artola Rugama denounced the collaborationist Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) of having usurped his mother’s name, Joan Francisca rugama Scotus54, to register her on his list of councilors in the municipality of San Dionisio, in the department of Matagalpa.
In a letter dated November 3, the ex-prisoner of conscience pointed out that in the list of candidates for the municipal voting —on November 6— published by the CSE through the official newspaper La Gaceta number 172 of September 13, his mother appears as a candidate for substitute councilman.
Related news: Open Ballot Boxes sees “impossible to organize credible municipal elections” under the total control of Ortega
The name of the mother of the young opponent appears in position number eight on the official list of the Supreme Electoral Council and can be seen on page 1831 in the Gazette.
Artola Rugama affirmed to Article 66 that he became aware of the usurpation of his mother’s identity on Wednesday, November 2, when he was preparing to review the list of candidates for councilors and mayor of San Dionisio.
“My mother appears as a —candidate— for a —substitute— councilor, despite the fact that she does not want or intend to run for public office, nor does she militate or have been a member of a political party,” she denounced.
«She —Juana Francisca Rugama— is an evangelical woman; She says that her only party is Jesus Christ and she prays for Nicaragua to move towards democracy and peace. That is why we are outraged because she usurped and violated her name and her personal data, “added the former political prisoner.
Related news: Nicaraguans in Costa Rica will march on November 6 in rejection of Ortega’s “electoral farce”
In addition to the CSE, Rugama pointed to the president of the PLI, deputy Mario Jose Asencio Flores“because of this barbarity and lack of respect that they have done, because they are crimes before the State of Nicaragua.”
He also blamed the departmental and municipal president of the PLI for “the crimes of usurpation, illegitimate appropriation of names and violations of the personal data protection law in the framework of voting by municipal authorities.”
«There are more male citizens than those who usurp their names»
Levis Artola Rugama stressed that in addition to the abuse committed against his mother, there are other citizens who are delaying this situation, where the PLI has usurped their identities to complete their lists of candidates for mayor.
“Among the people affected there is a lady named Elizabeth Orozco-Leiva she has lived in Panama for seven years. She, that woman, is not a member of any political party, that’s why she told me to please make it clear that she is not her and she does not want to be a candidate for any political party,” she stressed.
Another of the citizens of San Dionisio who appears on the PLI’s list of candidates for council is Maria Felicita Martinez Porras. She’s in position two as a proprietary councilwoman. According to Rugama, the citizen was unaware that she was a “candidate.”
Related news: Electoral campaign for municipal elections in Nicaragua closes without rallies
“All these people are humble, from the countryside, they do not have access to the internet, much less to social networks, and now they are being victims of these actions,” said Artola Rugama, who stated that her mother is concerned and astonished by these arbitrariness.
The ex-inmate of the Ortega dictatorship concluded that although it is true that it is becoming clear that there is no such candidacy for his mother, it is clear that the situation is not going to change in terms of a correction, “because with the same arbitrariness that they put her in, with the same arbitrariness it will remain on the ballot that is already printed, ready to be marked or self-marked on November 6.
