Nicaragua’s President, Daniel Ortega, in his desperate bid to cling to power, has declared that the country will not hold any new elections.
The 80-year-old authoritarian leader said his administration, which includes his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, is working with the parliament to create a law that would “build a wall” against elections.
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The Guardian reports that Mr Ortega made this declaration on Sunday at the official ceremony of the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which he helped overthrow the brutal dictatorship of US-backed Anastasio Somoza.
The president has ruled the country since 2007 and has, on multiple occasions, manipulated the law to extend his stay in power. Last year, he extended presidential terms to six years and promoted his wife from vice-president to co-president through a series of constitutional reforms.
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During the last election, held in 2021, state security was used to repress dissenting voices. Political opponents, activists, journalists and business leaders were detained. Human rights groups have also stated that opposition parties were effectively quashed in the 2011 and 2016 elections.
From his latest declaration, it appears Mr Ortega seeks to fully cement his grip on power, eliminating the possibility of an electoral challenge when his term ends next year.
At the ceremony, he said, “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.”
He claimed that preventing the opposition from returning to power was necessary to protect the country from the coup plotters.
The president also criticised the US for the abduction of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in January.
He described the action of the Donald Trump administration as monstrous.
“With all their power, they stormed the presidential palace, where Nicolás and his wife, Cilia [Flores], were. They killed the entire security detail there – most of them were Cubans – and took them away to imprison them in the US.”
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