Op-ed: Question of constitutional change follows announcement canceling elections in Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega stepped onto a stage in Managua on Saturday and told Nicaragua that elections are over. Not postponed. Not reformed. Over. The 80-year-old president, speaking on the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, declared that no opposition party would ever again use elections to try to take power. He offered no timeline, no constitutional mechanism, and no legal framework for the change. He did not need one. The infrastructure for competitive elections in Nicaragua was already gone. [ . . . ] What Ortega’s Saturday declaration does not resolve is the question of mechanism. Nicaragua’s constitution still nominally requires presidential elections. Ortega has not announced a constitutional amendment to abolish the requirement. He has made a political declaration that elections will not be permitted to serve the purpose of transferring power to his opponents. That may mean elections continue as ceremonial events while any genuine competition is prohibited. It may mean a constitutional change follows. Or it may mean Ortega simply governs without elections and dares the international community to respond.
Read the full article here: The Eastern Herald