The Urnas Abiertas observatory denounces that the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), controlled by the Daniel Ortega regime, “continues to compromise electoral integrity”, a few months before the municipal elections of November 2022, where 153 mayors, 153 deputy mayors will be elected and more than six thousand councils.
The organization is concerned because “so far these elections have not been called and the reasons for the delay are unknown, rather a state of secrecy and complete silence remains,” they demand that the CSE “as the power in charge” assume its responsibility to make of public knowledge about any situation that alters the functions corresponding to the electoral process.
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They assure that “since last Friday, May 13, supporters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) activated partisan political publications under the label or hashtag #PuebloAlcalde to promote the execution of urban projects in different municipalities, praise the management carried out by mayors Sandinistas and announce that they will continue “fighting for new opportunities” and “let’s go with everything”».
They highlight the decrease in the times for calling elections, a behavior that they assure has been “systematic registered throughout the last three municipal processes. For this 2022, it is unknown how long the period will be reduced and when it will be officially convened.
“The government continues to compromise the legitimacy of these elections, the delay in calling the elections, in addition to being a systematic practice, is a discretionary decision of the CSE that affects the possibility of there being a true organization, participation and citizen oversight. The democratic institutional strengthening is part of the commitments of the State of Nicaragua with the normative instruments of the Inter-American System and its internal legal system”, adds Urnas Abiertas.
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The government party occupies all the positions of magistrates in the CSE and those proposed by the parties indicated to be collaborators, who had the support of the Ortega deputies.
In addition, in just one year, Ortega has proposed two reforms to the Electoral Law, the first was approved by parliamentarians allied to the dictatorship on May 4, 2021, in a session where they also elected the proprietary and alternate magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council. (CSE).
