Presidential election in Nicaragua: the main opposition party excluded from the electoral race
Carmella Rogers Amburn, better known in politics as Kitty Monterrey.
AFP - STR
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5 mins
The main opposition formation was sidelined Friday August 6 in Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega, who is seeking a fourth consecutive term, is accused of wiping out his competitors in the run-up to the presidential election of November 7.
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“
The legal personality of the Citizens for Freedom (CxL) political party has been canceled,
” according to a resolution of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) read by the secretary of the electoral tribunal, Luis Luna.
President Ortega, a 75-year-old former Sandinista guerrilla, and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo, 70, now have no serious candidates against them for the November 7 ballot, with the announcement adding to the arrest of the seven most serious potential candidates for the presidential election.
The elimination of the CxL from the electoral race comes a few hours after a request to this effect from the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC, right), accused of appeasing power.
#LoUltimo CSE cancela personería jurídica al partido @CxLibertad tras denuncia del PLC.
Además cancela la cedula de identidad de Carmela "Kitty" Monterrey, pdta.
del partido.
pic.twitter.com/pTcm05owCU
- Canal 12 Nicaragua (@ canal12nica) August 6, 2021
Risk of deportation for Kitty Monterrey
The PLC argued that the CxL party has "
as president the citizen Carmella Rogers Amburn, who has dual nationality (American and Nicaraguan) in clear violation of the law
".
She is best known in politics as Kitty Monterrey.
The opposition party has confirmed the withdrawal to its president of her Nicaraguan citizenship, which puts her at risk of being deported.
The CxL party had already been deprived this week of its candidate for vice-president, Miss Nicaragua 2017 Berenice Quezada.
Her house was surrounded by police on Tuesday after a group of supporters of President Ortega's government accused her of making an "
implicit call for violence, hatred
".
She has since been placed under house arrest.
►
To read also:
Nicaragua: the opposition denounces the house arrest of its candidate for the vice-presidency
At the end of July, CxL had appointed Oscar Sobalvarro, a 68-year-old former counter-revolutionary, and Berenice Quezada, with no political experience, as candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency respectively.
“
Democracy cannot be erased,
” Oscar Sobalvarro tweeted after the CxL announcement.
Los Ciudadanos por la Libertad saldremos triunfadores de esta y de todas las que vengan, porque nuestro Compromiseo con una Nicaragua en paz, libertad y democracia no puede ser cancelada.
¡Our tuvieron miedo!
pic.twitter.com/qzbvsXpPiX
- Oscar Sobalvarro G. (@Sobalvarro_G) August 7, 2021
According to the electoral calendar, the Supreme Electoral Council has until August 9 to validate the candidatures for the presidential election.
Two other opposition political parties have already been disqualified in recent months by the CSE: the Conservative Party and the Party for Democratic Restoration.
The FSLN still behind Ortega
Unsurprisingly, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, ruling party) unanimously approved Daniel Ortega's candidacy on Monday.
His wife was also nominated as a candidate for a second term for the vice-presidency of this country of 6.5 million inhabitants.
Cristiana Chamorro,
67
,
the presidential couple's most credible rival, was the first to be taken into custody.
She is the daughter of Violeta Chamorro, who defeated Daniel Ortega at the polls in 1990.
► To read also: Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega, candidate for an election free of credible opponents
The European Union sanctioned Rosario Murillo on Monday as well as a son of Mr. Ortega and six other dignitaries of the regime for their responsibility in the "
serious violations of human rights
" committed in this Central American country.
There are now 14 in total who are banned from entering and transit, and whose assets in the EU are frozen.
And on Friday, the United States froze the visas of 50 relatives of Nicaraguan officials linked to the Ortega government.
(With
AFP
)
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Nicaragua
Daniel ortega