The independent electoral observatory Urnas Abiertas announced this Wednesday, May 25, its inspection day for the municipal electoral process in Nicaragua, scheduled for the month of November 2022. In addition, it called on citizen networks “to be part of this mission.” .
They also point out that this year’s observation will be focused on documenting the enabling conditions for voting and investigating the type and level of control that the Executive has over local powers.
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Regarding the objectives of the observation in the municipal elections, Open Ballot Boxes aims to evaluate the transparency of municipal management and how it impacts the living conditions of Nicaraguans.
“Access to public services, social programs and infrastructure projects that guarantee decent living conditions for people depend mostly on the work carried out by the municipalities with the taxes of the citizens, a local power co-opted by actors alien to the popular will. of the locality and corrupt is incapable of responding to citizen demands”, they emphasize.
They also recall that for these next municipal elections, 153 mayors and more than six thousand councilors will be elected.
“Without true change there cannot be a full and legitimate process”
For her part, Olga Valle, director and researcher of Urnas Abiertas, told Article 66 that without a real change in the democratic conditions it is impossible to think that the process can be integral and legitimate; “So far we see that the CSE (Supreme Electoral Council) is acting in the same non-transparent manner as last year,” he said.
Regarding the reform approved for these processes, Valle explained that there is no transparency when “a reform that does not bring substantive changes and without listening to all the sectors involved in the country’s political process is approved. In addition, it delays the calling of the elections without informing the reasons or clarifying it to the citizens.
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“We also see an increase in the totalitarian control that the regime is exercising against citizens in general, and specifically against State workers, for this reason we continue to warn that if these conditions continue, we would be witnessing another year, a process that It lacks legitimacy,” he stressed.
Controlling corruption in the mayor’s offices
Open Ballot Boxes indicated that the control of local power is important, since the mayor’s offices are a fundamental piece of the totalitarian strategy of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
“We know that any process managed by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) will lack legitimacy. However, we recognize that at the local level there are power relations, corruption networks and other dynamics that deserve to be controlled, documented and denounced”, expressed Olga Valle.
“The commitment to monitor, document and evidence the anomalies and the absence of democratic conditions persists, to continue demanding a full and credible electoral process, to continue building citizenship through observation processes, to continue working in collaboration with citizen networks , but above all to continue witnessing the civic resistance that is demonstrated in the abstention and in the control”, he pointed out.
During the 2021 general elections, the citizen networks of Urnas Abiertas collected 2,031 reports of anomalies and political violence from 84% of the country’s municipalities, which led to the conclusion that the elections were generally held under absolute police and paramilitary control. .
For her part, Ivania Álvarez, director of citizen networks for this organization, explained that “the local mayor’s offices were the institutions that made the most vehicles available for the transfer of voters and sympathizers of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), evidencing this way the coordinated action that exists between all public institutions and the Executive.
Related news: Open Ballot Boxes registered more than two thousand anomalies during the electoral process in Nicaragua
“The mayor’s offices lack municipal autonomy and respond to the party’s national guidelines. A clear example is the sanction imposed by the United States Department of State on three Nicaraguan mayors for being linked to the serious human rights violations that occurred in Nicaragua. as of 2018: Sadrach Zeledón (Matagalpa), Leónidas Centeno (Jinotega) and Francisco Valenzuela (Estelí)”, Álvarez added.
Since 2021, it has been denounced that there are no guarantees in Nicaragua to hold presidential elections, much less now with municipal elections where everything is controlled by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, who continues his wave of repression and siege against Nicaraguans.
