EFE.- The president of Nicaragua and candidate for reelection, Daniel Ortega, said this Sunday that citizens are choosing between peace and terrorism, the latter, according to him, promoted by the opposition excluded from the general elections, including the seven presidential candidates that were emerging as their main rivals.
After casting the vote with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, who also aspires to be reelected, Ortega offered a message on a television and radio network in which he attacked the opponents imprisoned and in exile, as well as the protests that broke out. against his Government in April 2018.
“We are holding these elections, and we are sure that in this battle, which is a historic battle, where we must decide on terrorism, confrontation, war or peace,” said Ortega from the House of Peoples.
In an unusual practice, the president made his call in the middle of the electoral day, which in its first seven hours has passed calmly and with low voter turnout, in contrast to the forecasts of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which predicted a massive vote.
TO VOTE OR NOT TO VOTE
The opposition excluded from participating in the elections, the Nicaraguans in exile and the Asociación Madres de Abril, which brings together relatives of the victims of the social outbreak of 2018, launched campaigns advising against voting on the grounds that doing so would legitimize the “dictatorship Ortega Murillo ”.
Opponents are using the hashtags #YoNoBotoMiVoto, #YoNoVoto or #NicaraguaNoVota, among others, with which they urge Nicaraguans not to leave their homes, keep the doors closed and the streets empty, because they consider that “there is no one to vote for ”And that the process is a“ sham ”.
“There is the vote, the vote does not kill anyone, the vote does not cause any injury to any person, the vote does not call for terrorism, war, never, the vote does not call for roadblocks in the country and for it to be paralyzed. the economy, and the destruction of families, the vote does not call for public torture, ”criticized Ortega.
In his message, the president recalled the violent scenes of the 2018 anti-government demonstrations and insisted on blaming the United States, a country that he thanked minutes later for donating vaccines against covid-19.
DEFEND ELECTIONS
Ortega resorted to taking the United States Capitol last January to defend Nicaragua’s electoral process, criticized for the imprisonment of seven candidates for the presidency by the opposition, the cancellation of three opposition parties, and the repeal of electoral observation.
“There in the United States that process is open, and they have as much right to open proceedings against terrorists, as Nicaraguans have the right to open proceedings against terrorists, because they were conspiring, because they did not want these elections to be held that have been held on today ”, he insisted.
The president affirmed that Nicaragua has been committed to voting since 1984, since since then the country has held 49 electoral processes, including presidential, municipal and regional, in which president, vice president, departmental and national deputies are elected, as well as for the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), mayors, vice mayors and councilors, as well as autonomous authorities of the Caribbean.
The opposition Blue and White National Unit accused Ortega of violating the Electoral Law by trying to influence the voters’ decision on election day, which is known as “electoral silence.”
“The dictator Daniel Ortega, once again, violates the Electoral Law, doing political proselytizing in electoral silence,” said the National Unity on its social networks.
More than 4.4 million Nicaraguans are called to the polls in Nicaragua to elect their president and vice president, 90 deputies before the National Assembly, and 20 before Parlacen.
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Like the local opposition, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union have expressed their doubts about the legitimacy of the elections in Nicaragua, because they did not find guarantees of transparency.
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