DEMOCRACY

Elections and Democratic Process in Nicaragua

 Adapted from NicaNotes 2 December 2021 “Nicaragua’s Election Was Free and Fair” by Richard Kohn, Ph.D.

Frequency of Elections

Nicaragua has general elections every five years; incumbent Presidents are allowed to seek unlimited consecutive terms. Representatives to the National Assembly and to the Central American Parliament are also chosen in General Elections. Nicaragua’s 153 municipalities hold local elections every five years for mayor, deputy mayor and city council members. Nicaragua’s two Autonomous Regions hold regional and local elections on a separate election calendar determined by their regional councils and Indigenous community governments.

Voter Turnout

Normally between 60 and 75% of registered voters turn out for general elections, in 2021 there was 65% turnout. Any Nicaraguan at least 16 years of age can vote; they are automatically registered when they receive their national picture ID. There is no issue of people having their voter registrations purged. Prior to elections, all voters have the opportunity to check their registration with the system and confirm their voting place. In 2021, most people (2.8 million) opted to do so. In 2022 municipal elections, voters received text messages inviting them to go online to check their registration which they could do in minutes.

Security

Ballot boxes, voter sign-in, and vote counting are under constant scrutiny by members of multiple political parties throughout the process. There are many safeguards against tampering:

• No absentee voting or early voting

• Elections are on a Sunday which is declared a national holiday

• Voting Center staff provides assistance to handicapped voters.

Participation of Political Parties

National political parties do not have to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to be on the ballot. They only have to have their own board of directors and elected boards of directors in 80% of 153 municipalities.  In 2021 elections, there was participation from 14 political parties which combined into alliances to back 6 candidates for President and 7 sets of candidates for the National Assembly. The last three parties to have won the presidency were all on the ballot.

Election Day

Polls open at 7:00 AM.  When a voter arrives at the polls, their ID is looked up in a computerized database (offline and backed up on paper), and then the voter is sent to the appropriate room of a school to vote (the polling place).  Here, there are short lines of just few minutes.  There are three poll workers: a president, first and second member. The president looks up the person’s voter ID on a list of names with photos, and directs each voter to sign in.  Another poll worker stamps the ballot and signs it so that it could not easily be substituted, and the president explains the ballot and how to mark it. Every participating political party has the right to have a poll watcher in every single classroom where voting is taking place. These are identified and stand behind the poll workers as observers. The voters move to a private space to mark the ballot behind a barrier, and then place it in the ballot box.  Then the second member applies indelible ink to the voter’s thumb to prevent them from voting again. 

Counting the Votes

The poll workers and the party poll watchers count the votes together at the end of the day making sure each used ballot is accounted for and equal to the number of people who signed in to vote. They also make sure the total number of ballots received at the beginning of the day equals the number of used ballots, unused ballots and null ballots. After counting the votes, the poll workers and poll watchers sign the summary of results which are called in, posted outside of the voting center, and hand delivered by the poll workers and watchers with the secured ballots to the municipal office for verification. This process is repeated in each of 13,459 polling stations across the country.

If there were a conspiracy to alter the outcome of the count, it would have to involve people from all participating political parties in the room counting the votes, it would only affect the few hundred votes counted in that room, and it could still be caught upstream.  If ballots were added or subtracted, they wouldn’t have the right stamps and signatures and the count totals compared to sign-ins would be wrong. To substantially change the outcome of the election would require a conspiracy of hundreds of thousands of poll workers and poll watchers from different political parties in the polling stations across the country without any of them disclosing the secret.  The conspiracy theories reported in the mainstream press about Nicaraguan elections are impossible.

2021 Presidential Elections

The very reliable vote tallies in Nicaragua at the end of the day showed about 65% of the eligible voters voted and 76% voted to re-elect the President and FSLN Party candidates to the National Assembly.  People say they support the government because of the social programs like universal health care, free public education including university and technical schools, infrastructure like roads, hospitals and schools, and advances in water and electricity. 

The US and other colonial powers did not recognize the 2021 vote. Biden and the US press said without evidence that the election was a sham, and Biden signed a bill passed by both houses of Congress to escalate a hybrid war against Nicaragua. But more than 153 nations did recognize the election! According to the United Nations no country needs the recognition of other nations. It’s the recognition by their own people that is important.