Questioned elections in Nicaragua marked by abstention

TODAY NICARAGUA – Under ring-of-steel security, Nicaragua opened its polls for presidential elections on Sunday, November 7, dismissed as a “farce” by the international community, with all viable challengers to long-term leader Daniel Ortega locked up or in exile.

At 1:30 am this Monday, while regime fans celebrated the “triumph” in the streets of Managua and the country’s departments, the Consejo Supremo Electoral (CSE) – Supreme Electoral Council – had not yet announced the designation of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo as president and vice president for five more years.

In the previous general elections, in 2016 for example, the first preliminary report was released at 11:15 pm on the same day the voting was held.

According to the Urnas Abiertas observatory, in its second cut on Sunday, abstention at the national level was between 79 and 84 percent, that is, an average of 81 percent.

While the voting centers closed at 06:00 pm, in the capital, the managuas lived a Sunday afternoon with unusual vehicular traffic and activated commerce, away from the electoral climate.

In the barrios, some families chatted together at the doors of their houses, others on the street corners, and from time to time the motorists brought food to their homes, while in the main streets, the fritangas and fast food businesses served queues of customers, the envy of any voting center. 

In the bars, the strident music played, the murmur of customers, the clink of bottles and lights of all colors attracting attention. Car wash shops, pharmacies, hairdressers, barbershops and used clothing sales were kept open until nightfall because the atmosphere was to take advantage of the people out and about.

But not far from the lights and laughter, the voting centers were wrapped in a gray environment, with people with serious faces and police.

Throughout the day, voters turned out to the polls by drops. By afternoon, only long faces were seen waiting for the closing.

The electoral members in each voting center, rushed out to deliver the electoral suitcase, which was transferred in buses for transport, which looked lonely inside, almost ghostly.

Many watched the caravan of buses that carried the electoral suitcases (the votes) pass by and that was the end of one of the most anticipated days this year, which was already known how it was going to end: with Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, retaining their power. Again.

The dictator Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo cast their vote in a voting center exclusively for them, located at the Universidad Central de Nicaragua.

More photos of Sunday’s farce election