2021 Nicaraguan general election
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 7 November 2021 to elect the President, the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament.
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Presidential election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 65.26% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by department Ortega: 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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90 of the 91 seats in the National Assembly 46 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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Politics of Nicaragua |
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Nicaragua portal
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President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front sought re-election, while five opposition candidates appeared on the ballot. In early June, police arrested five other potential opposition candidates: Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, Arturo Cruz Jr., Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Miguel Mora. In July, candidates Medardo Mairena and Noel Vidaurre were arrested, while Luis Fley and María Asunción Moreno went into exile due to threats of arrest. Critics stated that these arrests were intended to prevent the opposition candidates from running against Ortega.
The deadline for candidates to register was 2 August 2021. On 6 August the small party, Citizens for Liberty (Spanish: Ciudadanos por la Libertad, CxL) was disqualified from running by the Supreme Electoral Council after a complaint by the right-wing Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), the largest opposition party in parliament, because the leadership of a party by someone holding dual Nicaraguan-US citizenship is illegal. As a result PLC presidential candidate Milton Arcia resigned in protest, claiming the PLC was still under the influence of disgraced former president Arnoldo Alemán. On 3 August, CxL vice-presidential candidate Berenice Quezada had been placed under house arrest and disqualified from running, charged with inciting violence, provocation and conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.
The elections were described as a sham by the European Union, Organization of American States, United States, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, some independent election observers, and human rights groups, due to the intimidation, detention, and disqualification of opposition journalists and politicians, since in their view these actions secured victory for Ortega and his allies.