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Caribbean & Central America - November 2016 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Nicaragua’s Ortega wins big in another contentious election

As expected, President Daniel Ortega easily won a third consecutive election (and fourth presidential term) for his ruling Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) in the 6 November general elections. With 99.8% of the votes counted, he took 72.5% of the vote. As with the previous (2011) election (in which he took 62% of the vote), the electoral process itself was slammed as a “farce” by the opposition which called on the public to abstain from voting in protest. Concerns about the electoral process have been building for months, triggered by factors such as Ortega’s refusal to allow reputable international observer missions to oversee the vote and contentious rulings by the FSLN-controlled electoral authorities (CSE) such as that removing 28 national assembly members from the main opposition Partido Liberal Independiente (PLI) from their popularly-elected positions [RC-16-07]. It remains to be seen how the international community will respond to the opposition’s complaints which are unlikely to prosper via domestic channels given the FSLN’s control of all state institutions.

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