Nicaraguan President on Future Elections: “Never”

 

TT-AP

Published 08:15

  

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega does not want the country to hold elections again. Archive photo. Photo: Matias Delacroix/AP/TT

There will be no more elections in Nicaragua, declares the country’s President Daniel Ortega.

– Never, never, never, says Ortega.

The announcement means that the planned elections in November 2027 are canceled and underlines Ortega’s efforts to extend his rule.

According to conflict monitor Acled, the announcement shows that the president and his circle “fear that the slightest political opening could create the conditions for dissent to threaten their grip on power.”

Ortega, together with his wife Rosario Murillo, has ruled the country in turns since 1979, but uninterruptedly since 2007.

Since coming to power, he has crushed the country’s political opposition and rewrote the constitution. As recently as January last year, he and Rosario Murillo were given control of the entire state apparatus through an amendment to the constitution.