Caribbean & Central America - March 2014 (ISSN 1741-4458

The Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) government led by President Daniel Ortega is facing familiar complaints following the 2 March regional elections which took place in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (Raan) and South Atlantic Autonomous Region (Raas) on the impoverished indigenous Caribbean coast. The elections to select 45 councillors in each region produced a sweeping victory for the FSLN and prompted the local indigenous party, Yatama, a onetime FSLN ally, to allege fraud. As with similar complaints made by other opposition parties in relation to the November 2011 general elections and the November 2008 municipal elections, these allegations are unlikely to prosper given that President Ortega controls both the judiciary (CSJ) and the electoral authority (CSE).

According to the final results, published on 4 March by the CSE, the FSLN maintained its stronghold on the Raan, taking 52% of the vote ahead of Yatama, which took 21%. In third place was the main national opposition, Partido Liberal Independiente (PLI) which took 19% of the vote. In the Raas, the FSLN took 48% of the vote followed by the considerably weakened Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC) of former president, Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002), which has traditionally dominated the Raas, but took only 19% of the vote. The PLI came third with 17% of the vote and Yatama, fourth with 7%. According to CSE president, Roberto Rivas, turnout was “47 or 48%” of the 301,662 people registered to vote. This was up from 40.54% in 2010 and 45.17% in 2006.

With Rivas yet to confirm how this translates into councillor seats, the local media is reporting that in the Raan, the FSLN will have 28 seats (up from 22) while Yatama will have 11, four less than in 2010. In the Raas, the FSLN looks to have secured 30 seats (up from 19) while the PLC lost 14 seats, retaining just six. This gives the FSLN a 23-seat majority in both regions for the first time.

As in other recent elections, the results have, however, been contested. On 3 March some 2,000 Yatama supporters took to the streets in Bilwi, Raan’s capital, protesting fraud and complaining about the widespread practice known as ‘ratón loco’ (crazy mouse) – whereby citizens are denied the right to vote, due to a lack of voting papers, which forces them to run around trying to find the correct voting booth until eventually, they give up and leave. Yatama’s complaints prompted an angry response from Rivas, who is threatening to strip the party of its legal recognition if it continues to make a fuss.

• New defence minister - On 18 February Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega named Martha Ruiz Sevilla as his new defence minister, filling a post vacant since the left-wing Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) returned to power in 2007. Ruiz Sevilla – Nicaragua’s first ever female defence minister - had served as general secretary of the defence ministry since February 2013. President Ortega had previously said that he would name his defence minister once new amendments to the 1987 constitution granting both the executive and the military additional powers took effect – which they did on 11 February [RC-14-02].