Four collaborationist parties of the Sandinista Front —, popularly called “mosquitoes”— usurped the identities of Nicaraguan citizens to complete their lists of candidates for mayors, deputy mayors, and councilors, according to 1,158 complaints registered by the citizen observatory Open Ballot Boxesas of the publication of the preliminary list of candidacies by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) in La Gaceta on September 13, 2022.
The Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), the Alliance for the Republic (APRE), the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) They are the parties accused of including entire families on their lists without their consent, citizens who currently do not reside in Nicaragua and people who died more than five years ago, Urnas Abiertas confirmed through the complaints received.
Olga Valle, director of the observatory, explained that most of the usurpations have been corrected in the final list of candidates, published by the CSE on September 22. However, they know of people whose identities were used by the PLI and they have not yet resolved these cases.
Valle stressed that, for fear of reprisals, many other citizens do not report their situations, nor do they have the capacity to exert greater pressure to correct the usurpations of which they were victims.
The complaints came from 33 municipalities in seven departments of Nicaragua: Managua, Masaya, North Caribbean, Chontales, Estelí, Madriz and Nueva Segovia. The largest number of complaints were reported in the latter, mainly in the municipalities of Macuelizo (75), Wiwilí (66), Jalapa (63) and Ocotal (61). In Estelí there were 64 complaints from La Trinidad.
#BulletinUA | ? Open Ballot Boxes registered 1,158 complaints of identity theft in the lists of candidacies for mayors, deputy mayors, and councilors disclosed by the CSE after collaborationist parties included names without consent https://t.co/eZ6hDZ5SJb
— Open Ballot Boxes (@Open Ballot Boxes) September 30, 2022
The reported irregularities, according to Open Ballot Boxes, were linked to usurpation, illegitimate name appropriation and violation of the Personal Data Protection Law. Following the complaints made by the population, none of the political parties mentioned has spoken in this regard. Only the PLC assured through its Facebook account that “they were hacking people”, in reference to the fact that their militancy had also notified the use of their identities by other Ortega satellite parties.
Esmilda Salas Rayo, municipal president of the PLC, in San Nicolás, Estelí, denounced that of 30 people who appeared on a list of candidacies for that municipality “no one was asked for consent, thus violating civil rights and constitutional rights.”
In the letter, Salas confirms that the militancy of that party is “unmotivated and disappointed by the way things have been done lately. For these reasons, nobody wants to participate in anything.” reads in the text shared by Urnas Abiertas.
There were also complaints of nepotism against LEARN and the ILPthe latter for including in his candidacies for a person convicted of drug trafficking.
“Stilt” parties without convening capacity
Valle pointed out that the usurpations of identities show that they do not have the capacity to call to complete all the people who are needed to participate in the municipal votes next November. He also reveals a “weak electoral authority”, which is not regulating, supervising the way these parties act.
The population does not trust that the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), as the supervisory body for municipal voting, can resolve the reported irregularities, said Valle. “Citizens do not approach, do not trust the mechanisms that should exist to be able to solve these identity thefts,” he said.
The municipal elections will be held on November 6, which members of the opposition and analysts have pointed out as a reissue of the electoral “farce” of the 2021 general votes, in which Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo took power for another period of five years, with seven presidential candidates in prison, accused of “treason against the country.”
In these new elections, which according to experts in municipalism, the Sandinista Front is committed to cementing its local power by assigning itself the largest number of mayors of the 153 municipalities in the country in collaboration with the satellite parties.
The red and black party will recycle to 118 candidates for mayors of the 141 mayoralties it controls in Nicaragua, according to a data analysis conducted by CONFIDENTIAL to the provisional list of candidates for mayors, deputy mayors and councillors.
According to the CSE, 6,088 public officials will be elected in the November elections. Between all the parties and alliances they presented more than 27,000 candidates.
