Ortega insists on no more elections in Nicaragua Story

The former leader of the Central American country wants to stop the opposition from challenging his rule.

President Daniel Ortega told his supporters that Nicaragua will not hold elections again.

Having been in power since 2007 following an international referendum, the 80-year-old Marxist planned this as a way to thwart the opposition, who said they were controlled by the United States.

“There will be no more elections here to try to take over the government and seize power,” he said in a speech on Sunday at a commemoration of the 1979 Sandinista uprising.

“The days when the parties supported by the Yankees and the Somocistas will return to power are over – they will never be,” he said, according to Reuters.

He is accused of crushing dissent in order to stay in office. The last election in 2021 was disputed after his government dealing with disagreements and imprisoning the opposition.

Last year, the presidential term was extended to six years and Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, was elected President.

The UN Human Rights Council said he said the two have established a repressive regime, accusing the authorities of being responsible for “unreasonable imprisonment, torture, extrajudicial killings (and) persecution of civil society and the press”.

Ortega was widely criticized when more than 300 people were killed in the crackdown on anti-government protests in 2018.

Since then, the government has stripped hundreds of Nicaraguans of their citizenship forced others to flee the world for fear of arrest.

Ortega previously served as president from 1985 to 1990, when he instituted reforms that followed the ouster of US dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.

Since then he has imprisoned many former Sandinista National Liberation Front rebels.