July 20 (Reuters) – Nicaragua’s long-serving president Daniel Ortega said the Central American country will no longer hold elections, eliminating the possibility of an electoral challenge when his term ends next year and further entrenching the rule he shares with his wife.
Ortega, who has continuously held power since 2007 following an earlier presidential term in the 1980s, said the move will close off any path to the opposition, although he did not provide details about carrying out the measure.
“There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said in a speech on Sunday evening to commemorate the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which Ortega helped overturn the brutal Anastasio Somoza dictatorship.
“The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again,” he added, in his first public appearance in two months.
Nicaragua’s last election in 2021 was widely disputed after Ortega detained opponents and business leaders and criminalized dissent.
Last year, Ortega further consolidated his power through a series of constitutional reforms that included naming his wife Rosario Murillo as “co-president” and extending the presidential term to six years. He and his wife control virtually every aspect of the government, including the armed forces and the judiciary.
Ortega and Murillo’s government has been accused by the U.N. Human Rights Council of transforming the country “into an authoritarian state” and systematically violating human rights.
Nicaragua has been in a severe political crisis since April 2018, when Ortega responded to anti-government protests with a crackdown in which more than 300 people were killed.
(Reporting by Raul Cortes and Gabriela Selser, Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Nia Williams)
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