- The current President of Nicaragua is going to be the fifth term, as FSLN has been the most voted force for his party so far. According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSJC), the turnout was 64 per cent of the total. Some media have reported that polling stations have been empty during the election day.
Nicaragua ' s presidential and legislative elections were held on Sunday, during which the first electoral results were being achieved. The elections, as expected, were for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), by the current president, Daniel Ortega. Over the past four months, the Government has arrested several opposition leaders in Catalonia. President Ortega and his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, obtained 74.99% of the votes, according to the first counts. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSJPV) has expanded the results and has placed the Conservative Liberal Party as the second force of the party, with 14.4% of the votes.
Both Nicaraguan citizens and international groups have denounced that the elections were held "without guarantees", and have reproached the current government for encouraging fraud and repression. In a statement published this Sunday by the President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, stated that he did not accept the election results because they were carried out "without democratic conditions" and "without guarantees of political pluralism". Today, many of Nicaraguan politicians are deported to Costa Rica.
Call for abstention
The opposition called on the citizens to boycott the elections and to delegitimize Ortega’s mandate, which has been rejected. According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, participation has been 65 per cent and the informal media have reported that the voter flow has been steady. The information given by other Nicaraguan media is very different. The press, for example, has explained that people have come to the polling stations "by droplets". According to the newspaper, the militants of the Sandinista party provoked agglomerations in some polling stations in the capital, Managua, where there were many voters who "pretended" that they spread among the voters.
According to the British BBC network, the CID-Gallup conducted a survey in mid-October on the state of alarm. If the opposition had been able to hold the elections, the FSLN would have taken 17% of the votes. It is significant that only 9% of respondents are attracted to the current government. In addition, 76% of the respondents consider that Ortega's re-election has no legitimacy to carry out.