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Security & Strategic Review October 2009 (ISSN 1741-4202)

POINTERS

NICARAGUA | Ortega manoeuvres to lift ban on reelection. On 19 October the constitutional panel of the supreme court granted President Daniel Ortega an injunction he sought against the ban on consecutive reelection enshrined in Article 147 of the constitution, on the grounds that it violates a basic human right to seek election. Aware that he would not have been able to get the ban lifted in the national assembly because he lacked the requisite number of votes, Ortega opted for a ploy similar to that used in Costa Rica to overturn a very roughly similar ban on re-election in April 2003, which allowed Oscar Arias to seek and win a second term in office (after he had vowed not to do this). The panel ruled that the ban was inapplicable. Its ruling was almost instantly accepted by the supreme electoral council, despite the fact that it had yet to be endorsed by the full 16-member court.

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