Nicaragua votes, with Ortega re-election all but certain

About 4.3 million Nicaraguans are eligible to cast votes in one of 13,459 ballot boxes placed throughout the impoverished Central American country, with polling stations closely guarded by 30,000 police and military personnel.Seven people who had any real shot at the presidency are among 39 opposition figures detained in a brutal government clampdown that started in June.The country's opposition in exile has called for a boycott of the election, and for many frustrated citizens the question is not which candidate to choose, but whether to even participate in the process."If they are so sure that the people love them, why did they throw the presidential aspirants in jail?""I voted because it is a right and because I want the country's progress to continue," the 39-year-old said.The vote takes place without international observers and with most foreign media denied access to the country.- 'No one to vote for' -"It will be quite clear that these elections will have no credibility, that they're a sham," Patrick Ventrell, the US State Department's Central American Affairs director, said Thursday.A firebrand Marxist in his youth, Ortega ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, after the guerrilla ousting of US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.Two-thirds of respondents in a recent Cid-Gallup poll said they would have voted for an opposition candidate on Sunday.But Chamorro is under house arrest, and six other presidential hopefuls are behind bars in conditions their families say amount to torture.Election authorities have banned the country's main opposition alliance, Citizens for Freedom, from contesting Sunday's vote.Apart from about 150 political opponents known to be behind bars, more than 100,000 Nicaraguans are in exile to avoid arrest -- mainly in Costa Rica, Miami and Madrid.The wave of arrests has worsened ties with Washington and the European Union, both of which have imposed sanctions against Ortega family members and allies.Ortega's foreign minister Denis Moncada issued a not-so-veiled return swipe."No empire, no power will threaten and intimidate us."...

from Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3wqDwNG

November 07, 2021 at 11:28PM
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
About 4.3 million Nicaraguans are eligible to cast votes in one of 13,459 ballot boxes placed throughout the impoverished Central American country, with polling stations closely guarded by 30,000 police and military personnel.Seven people who had any real shot at the presidency are among 39 opposition figures detained in a brutal government clampdown that started in June.The country's opposition in exile has called for a boycott of the election, and for many frustrated citizens the question is not which candidate to choose, but whether to even participate in the process."If they are so sure that the people love them, why did they throw the presidential aspirants in jail?""I voted because it is a right and because I want the country's progress to continue," the 39-year-old said.The vote takes place without international observers and with most foreign media denied access to the country.- 'No one to vote for' -"It will be quite clear that these elections will have no credibility, that they're a sham," Patrick Ventrell, the US State Department's Central American Affairs director, said Thursday.A firebrand Marxist in his youth, Ortega ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, after the guerrilla ousting of US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.Two-thirds of respondents in a recent Cid-Gallup poll said they would have voted for an opposition candidate on Sunday.But Chamorro is under house arrest, and six other presidential hopefuls are behind bars in conditions their families say amount to torture.Election authorities have banned the country's main opposition alliance, Citizens for Freedom, from contesting Sunday's vote.Apart from about 150 political opponents known to be behind bars, more than 100,000 Nicaraguans are in exile to avoid arrest -- mainly in Costa Rica, Miami and Madrid.The wave of arrests has worsened ties with Washington and the European Union, both of which have imposed sanctions against Ortega family members and allies.Ortega's foreign minister Denis Moncada issued a not-so-veiled return swipe."No empire, no power will threaten and intimidate us."...