Nicaragua’s Sandinista party ratifies Ortega and Murillo as their presidential ticket

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) ratified this Monday (1) the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and his wife, vice-president Rosario Murillo, as its presidential ticket for the election next November 7.

The candidacies of Ortega, who is about to turn 76, and Murillo, 70, were unanimously approved by the Sandinista National Congress during a virtual act headed by the presidential couple, and in which they also approved the candidacies for deputies to the National Assembly and the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).

Read also: Check out our coverage on Nicaragua

Ortega, a former Sandinista guerrilla who returned to power in 2007 after coordinating a Government Junta from 1979 to 1984 and presiding over the country for the first time from 1985 to 1990, will seek his fifth term and fourth consecutive term.

EIGHTH CONSECUTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY

The president will run for the second consecutive time in an election with his wife as a vice-presidential candidate, and it will be his eighth consecutive candidacy since 1984.

The president has spent half of his life as the undisputed leader of the FSLN, the party of which he has been its only presidential candidate in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, and now in 2021.

Meanwhile, the first lady will run for the second consecutive time as a vice-presidential candidate.

Murillo, along with seven other people, was sanctioned this Monday (1) by the European Union (EU), in the context of the political crisis that Nicaragua is going through, under the argument that they are “responsible for serious violations of human rights or actions that undermine democracy and the rule of law” in this Central American country.

Murillo has also been sanctioned by the governments of Canada and the United States.

The Sandinista leader was reelected in 2016 with 72.4% of the votes in elections in which the main opposition coalition decided not to participate after being affected by a series of court rulings that left it without its main party, while the Electoral Power and the parliamentary board, controlled by Ortega’s supporters, dismissed most of its deputies.

In the 2011 elections, even though the Constitution prohibited it, Ortega ran for the Presidency thanks to a legal maneuver. He bypassed the constitutional rule that stood between him and his goal of staying in power for five more years.

ORTEGA’S MAIN OPPONENTS ARE DETAINED

In the current electoral process, Nicaraguan authorities have arrested opposition presidential aspirants Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, Medardo Mairena, and Noel Vidaurre, who are being investigated for alleged treason.

The National Police, headed by Francisco Díaz, an in-law of Ortega, has also apprehended a former foreign minister, two former deputy foreign ministers, two historic dissident Sandinista ex-guerrillas, a business leader, a banker, a former first lady, and five opposition leaders.

In addition, two student leaders, two peasant leaders, a lawyer and human rights defender, a political scientist and specialist in political and electoral systems, a journalist, a commentator, two former NGO workers, and a host of Cristiana Chamorro allies have been arrested.

Two other opposition presidential hopefuls, María Asunción Moreno and former “Contra” leader Luis Fley, have left Nicaragua for security reasons.

Nicaragua will hold elections on November 7 to elect a new president, vice president, 90 deputies to the National Assembly (Parliament), and 20 to Parlacen.