“Do you already know whom you are going to vote for?” On 6 November elections will be held for the positions of President, Vice-President, Members of the Nicaraguan Parliament, and the Nicaraguan members of the Central-American Parliament (PARLACEN). But here the question is more often whether people will be going to vote at all. The opposition stresses there is no real choice and one might just as well stay at home.
Little indicates that there are national elections next week. There are few bill boards, no debates, and no campaigns. If you do not already know about the elections, there is little to help you becoming aware of it.
FSLN
Since 2007 the FSLN (the Frente) is the dominant political party in Nicaragua. They have got a long history in the country and overthrew the then dictatorship in 1979. The current president, Daniel Ortega, also played a role in this. In 2007 he won the elections and became President, although observers at that time claim there had been irregularities at the polls. He was elected for a 5-year term, but once in power he changed the law which made re-election for subsequent terms possible. And now Mr Ortega is running to win a third term. There is little opposition because opposition parties are small and divided and therefore have almost no political clout. The biggest opposition party, which does not pose a real threat to the Frente, has been sidelined due to some legal regulations. It is highly likely that the Frente will gain a landslide victory and that Mr Ortega will be elected for a third term. One critical newspaper has referred to the election process as an ‘electoral circus’ that costs a lot of money, but has little to show for it.
Observers
Initially the President mentioned that international observers would not be welcome, because Nicaraguans are quite capable of managing their own affairs. But after the international outcry about the electoral procedures, the Organisation of American States (the OEA) of which Nicaragua is a member was invited for a dialogue, and subsequently the President invited the OEA to send observers to the capital Managua for a period of three days starting on the day before the elections. This turn-around may have been instigated by the fact that the American Congress is about to vote on the ‘Nicaragua Act’, which, if adopted, could result in stopping several trade agreements between Nicaragua and the USA because of the poor democratic level of the elections in Nicaragua.
And the Nicaraguans? The people I have been talking to say they have got other worries or more important things to attend to. The elections are not really a topic. It remains to be seen whether this lackadaisical attitude will change into a greater interest closer to election time.