MANAGUA - A report by an 80-person European Union electoral observation group on Nicaragua's November 6, 2011 elections condemns the country's electoral body as a tool of left-wing president Daniel Ortega and his political party, rather than an independent electoral body.
The report confirms what international observers have claimed since November, that the November elections were not free and not fair, and that Ortega had politicized the electoral body for his and his party's political advantage.
Aside from the politicization of the electoral oversight body, Ortega had also breached Nicaragua's own constitution to run for another term as president, by stacking the country's Supreme Court with supporters that enabled his candidacy by fiat, which prompted Vilma Nunez, the head of the Nicaraguan Center for the Defense of Human Rights, to state, "This is the only country in the world where the court has declared the constitution unconstitutional."
An exerpt from the EU report's executive summary sums up the group's findings:
"The 6 November elections constituted a deterioration in the democratic quality of Nicaraguan electoral
processes, due to the lack of transparency and neutrality with which they were administered by the Supreme
Electoral Council (Consejo Supremo Electoral, CSE.) Throughout the process, a CSE that was virtually monocolour...
at each of its levels demonstrated scant independence from the ruling party and created unequal conditions
for competition as well as outright obstructions to the opposition, who were prevented from having any
effective representation within the election administration. Some experienced national election observation
organisations were not accredited and auditing of the process by the opposition was impeded by the Supreme
Electoral Council."
Under the administration of the former Marxist guerrilla, Nicaragua has become closer to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and Ortega has undermined the country's democratic institutions in the same manner as Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and the other countries that claim membership in the "ALBA Alliance" of socialist-led countries in the region.
A copy of the EU report can be seen here.
