Nicaraguan electoral court blocks participation of opposition party

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) of Nicaragua on Tuesday, May 18, announced the revocation of the legal status of the Democratic Restoration Party (PRD), which is part of the National Coalition, one member of the main opposition bloc that seeks to defeat President Daniel Ortega in the November 7 elections.

The electoral body, controlled by the Ortega-led Sandinistas, declared “the revocation of the PRD’s legal status,” the party’s president and legal representative, Saturtino Cerrato, told journalists.

“A notification letter (from the CSE) was handed to me and it says that it has decided to cancel the legal status of the Democratic Restoration Party,” said Cerrato, who explained that “these decisions are unappealable.”

Cerrato ascribed the decision to the objection made the day before by “alleged evangelical pastors” who appeared before the CSE and accused the PDR of “betraying Christian values,” after this group confirmed over the weekend its political alliance with the National Coalition.

“As far as I know a civil and natural person can not challenge a political party. They are not even members of the PRD,” Cerrato pointed out.

The PRD was the National Coalition’s (CN, formed by four political movements and two parties that supported the 2018 opposition protests) only option to compete against Ortega, who has retained power since 2007 and is seeking his third consecutive reelection.

The CSE’s decision sparked outrage in opposition political circles, which called it “illegal” and “arbitrary” ahead of the November 7 presidential and legislative elections.

“The illegal revocation of the PRD’s legal status is evidence of Orteguismo’s fear,” Ana Margarita Vijil, leader of the opposition Unamos party, also a member of the National Coalition, said in a statement on social networks.

“This diverse, belligerent National Coalition, which has signed a de facto electoral alliance with the PRD terrifies Ortega,” added Vijil, who belongs to a family of Sandinista dissidents.

Last week another opposition bloc, the Citizens for Liberty (CxL) party, registered as an electoral alliance, after a failed attempt at unity with the PDR and CN leaders, who accused them of “intransigence” and of sabotaging any possibility of an agreement.

CxL is a minority party which calls itself an opposition party, although its detractors link it to the ruling Sandinista Front, Ortega’s party.

Source: DW