MANAGUA, Nicaragua’s capital, is not throbbing with campaign fever. With days to go before presidential and parliamentary elections on November 6th, political posters are nowhere to be seen. Campaigning, when it happens, is low-key. Yadira Ríos, the vice-presidential candidate of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), has taken to obstructing rush-hour traffic at a roundabout just to get noticed. “We have a small budget,” she says from a garageforecourt as drivers honk at her 20-odd supporters on the road, “so we do this”.
Their antics will be in vain. Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla commander who first won the presidency in 1985, is almost certain to win a third consecutive term, and his fourth overall. According to one recent poll, he will win 65% of the vote. That endorsement owes something to the president’s success in managing the economy and reducing poverty. But it also comes from an undemocratic suppression of the opposition to him and his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
The election is, in effect, a one-party event. Mr Ortega’s main political foe, Eduardo Montealegre, was removed as the PLI’s leader...Continue reading
from Americas http://ift.tt/2eQflAv
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment