Nicaragua’s President Ortega Vows to Eliminate Elections

President Daniel Ortega announced on Sunday that Nicaragua will abolish its elections, a stark step that solidifies his and his wife’s authoritarian control over the country’s seven‑million population.

‘There will be no elections in Nicaragua again,’ Ortega, 80, declared at a state‑sponsored rally commemorating the 47th anniversary of his leftist movement’s revolution, as a thin round of applause erupted. He subsequently charged opponents with attempting to ‘seize the government and power’ through voting.

This statement marks an unequivocal end to any remaining façade of democracy in Nicaragua.

Ortega and his wife, co‑president Rosario Murillo, have maintained total control of Nicaragua for years, presiding over a regime that has rigged elections, dismantled institutions, killed protesters, targeted dissidents, and imprisoned critics, journalists, religious leaders, opposition politicians and even long‑standing loyalists, according to human‑rights organizations and the UN.

A presidential election had been anticipated for next year — delayed by one year after Ortega‑aligned Congress extended the co‑presidents’ mandate — but that prospect now hangs in uncertainty.

‘Ortega buried Nicaraguan democracy long ago,’ said Félix Maradiaga, a 2021 presidential hopeful who was arrested, removed from the race, and later exiled to the United States. ‘This declaration strips away the façade of legality he had been clinging to,’ he added.

Maradiaga asserted that the international community should cease hoping for electoral change in Nicaragua, warning that the Ortega‑Murillo administration may stage an ‘electoral charade’ involving allied parties.

‘As long as Daniel Ortega dominates Nicaragua’s state apparatus, the country cannot hold free elections,’ Maradiaga said, noting that his opposition party, Path to Change, operates both from exile and covertly within the country.

International bodies, including the United States and the European Union, characterized the 2021 general election as a sham after the government detained prospective candidates and suppressed dissent. Ortega’s administration claimed a 76 % victory.

A former guerrilla fighter, Ortega has ruled Nicaragua for about three decades, assuming power in the 1980s after the Sandinist revolutionary movement toppled a dictatorship.

He lost elections in the 1990s but returned to power in 2007 and has remained president ever since. Following widespread 2018 protests, he adopted an increasingly repressive stance, crushing dissent and effectively outlawing opposition parties.

Ortega’s Sunday address marked a rare public appearance; in recent years he has largely remained out of the public eye, often disappearing for months without showing his face.

His wife, Rosario Murillo, has become the public face of the government after Congress amended the constitution last year to designate her as co‑president, cementing their control over key state institutions, including the military and judiciary.

Ortega appeared frail during the speech, speaking slowly and remaining seated for most of the event. He reiterated familiar rhetoric, branding opponents as U.S.-backed ‘coup plotters’ and ‘sellouts,’ and announced plans to enact laws creating a ‘wall’ and ‘blockade’ against them.

Since Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was detained by U.S. forces in January and the Trump administration intensified pressure on Cuba — two Latin American allies of Nicaragua — analysts have noted that the Ortega‑Murillo administration is operating under heightened paranoia.

Maradiaga characterized Ortega’s recent threats as ‘not words of strength but words of fear.’

Despite Ortega’s dominance over Nicaragua’s government and electoral mechanisms, Maradiaga warned that ‘Ortega still harbors great fear that he hasn’t fully dismantled the opposition,’ a fear that also encompasses dissent within his own party, exemplified by the recent arrests of longtime loyalists.

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