Nicaragua’s president says country will not hold any more elections

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega declared on Sunday that the country will not hold any further elections, a move aimed at preventing the opposition from ever seizing power. The 80-year-old authoritarian leader, in office since 2007, also announced plans to collaborate with the congress he controls to pass legislation that would erect a "wall" against opposition forces.

Ortega made this announcement during the official ceremony commemorating the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, a movement he co-led to overthrow the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. While his administration, alongside his wife and "co-president" Rosario Murillo, has been characterized by a steady decline in democratic practices, this latest declaration is being viewed by many as a significant rhetorical escalation.

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There will be no more elections here so that they [the opposition parties] can try to seize the government, seize power.

Tiziano Breda, a senior Latin America analyst at the NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, described the announcement as sealing the country's transition into a "full-fledged family dictatorship." Speaking to thousands of state employees, who local media reported were coerced into attending, Ortega stated, "There will be no more elections here so that they [the opposition parties] can try to seize the government, seize power."

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With this decision, Ortega and Murillo have sealed the country’s transition to a full-fledged family dictatorship.

Ortega, who had been out of public view for 61 days, added that he would work with the National Assembly and other institutions to create laws that serve as a "barrier, against the coup plotters and the traitors who sell out their country." Although elections were scheduled for next year, Ortega provided no specifics on whether they would be canceled or if the opposition would be barred from participating, a situation that has largely been the reality in practice. During the 2021 election campaign, his regime outlawed opposition parties and imprisoned all presidential candidates.

Breda suggested that Ortega and Murillo are apprehensive about any political opening that could foster dissent and threaten their hold on power, possibly indicating a further decline in their already weak domestic support. Instead of proceeding with rigged elections, they have chosen to eliminate electoral competition entirely. Last year, Ortega enacted constitutional reforms extending presidential terms to six years and elevated his wife to the position of "co-president." The United States refers to their administration as the "Murillo-Ortega dictatorship."

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We will work with the National Assembly and the relevant institutions on laws, because we need laws that build a wall, a barrier, against the coup plotters and the traitors who sell out their country.