Nicaragua Has Now Become an Electoral Dictatorship

Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo have just extended their time in the Nicaraguan presidential palace via elections Sunday that were as fraudulent as a three dollar bill.

Known as 'OrMu', in the local vernacular, they have now given themselves a new mandate to govern as president and vice president while persecuting anyone who might seek to contain their unbridled ambitions or challenge their political power. Facebook’s pre-election takedown of a massive OrMu-promoting troll farm run out of state offices confirmed the lack of election integrity for anyone who may have harbored doubts.

That they felt the need to contest elections at all shows a continuing desire for political legitimacy; that they tossed leading political candidates and influencers in jail prior to the elections, exiled others, hounded the press, monopolized state resources, and positioned public security forces to intimidate voters, among additional anti-democratic steps, shows they should not get it.

This will now be Ortega’s fourth consecutive presidential term, each election more suspect than the one before. This time, despite months of advance notice, there has been almost no international reaction other than easily ignored rhetorical rebukes and some U.S. visa cancellations…

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