Nicaraguan local elections to be held on 5 November
NSCAG News |
on: Thursday, 19 October 2017
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has formally announced that municipal-level elections will occur across the country on 5 November.
He said that the National Electoral Council is working with all municipal leaders to ensure that “citizens can vote with safety and peace of mind.” The Nicaraguan military is expected to fly in voting materials by helicopter to remote rural areas.
Ortega hailed the elections as "the way forward for the country," adding that he expects it to be free of violence and confrontation.
He went on to say that the Sandinista Revolution has an “immense alliance of workers, producers, businesses to bring great economic and social development to the country ... with solidarity under socialist principles.”
Ortega added that people can question, but must ultimately respect electoral outcomes saying that, in “1990 we handed the government over to another political party, independent from the anti-democratic circumstances around these elections, this was simply how it went.”
The Organization of American States, OAS, backed by the United States to maintain hegemony in the region, has heavily scrutinized the Nicaraguan government’s electoral practices and is sending 60 international observers to the Nov. 5 elections. The OAS recently mandated 70 international observers to take part in Venezuela’s Oct. 15 gubernatorial elections, where the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela swept 18 of 23 states.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro went as far as holding hearings to determine if there's evidence of so-called “crimes against humanity” in Venezuela. Nicaragua criticized the OAS for holding such hearings, pointing out, “This action is in violation of the nature and purposes for which this organization was conceived ... to insist in this direction is to pervert the essence and functioning of this organization.”
The Ortega administration added, the OAS cannot “intervene in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of the member states."
Source: Telesur
https://www.telesurtv.net/english
