Nicaragua’s president says no more elections will happen

Nicaragua's President, Daniel Ortega, has announced that there will be no new elections in the country. This move comes as he tries to hold on to power.

The 80-year-old leader said his government, which includes his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, is working with parliament to create a law that would “build a wall” against elections.

Ortega made this statement on Sunday during the ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution. This revolution helped end the harsh dictatorship of US-backed Anastasio Somoza.

He has been in charge since 2007 and has changed laws to extend his rule. Last year, he extended presidential terms to six years and promoted his wife from vice-president to co-president through constitutional changes.

During the last election in 2021, the government used state security to silence opposing voices. Many political opponents, activists, journalists, and business leaders were arrested. Human rights groups have said that opposition parties were effectively eliminated during the 2011 and 2016 elections.

Ortega’s latest declaration shows he wants to secure his power even more. He aims to remove any chance of an election challenge when his term ends next year.

At the ceremony, he said, “We will work with the National Assembly and the relevant institutions on laws, because we need laws that build a wall, a barrier, against the coup plotters and the traitors who sell out their country.”

He believes stopping the opposition from regaining power is necessary to safeguard the country from coup plotters.

Ortega also took aim at the US for the capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro in January. He described the actions of the Donald Trump administration as monstrous.

He said, “With all their power, they stormed the presidential palace, where Nicolás and his wife, Cilia [Flores], were. They killed the entire security detail there, most of them were Cubans, and took them away to imprison them in the US.”