Nicaragua: Concentration of Power and the Undermining of the Rule of Law

The IACHR country report approved on 25 October 2021 (OEA/Ser.L/V/II Doc.288/21) documents that by 31 August 2021 seven presidential aspirants had been arrested and more than 30 people arbitrarily detained, and that the CSE cancelled the legal status of the Democratic Restoration Party on 19 May, of the Conservative Party ex officio on 20 May after it announced it would not run, and of Ciudadanos por la Libertad on 6 August, four days after that party registered the only opposition presidential ticket to be formally accepted; the Commission adds that the August resolution was said to have been adopted in violation of the Nicaraguan Constitution. It also traces the electoral rule changes that facilitated the concentration of power: the 2000 constitutional reform lowered the share of valid votes needed to win the presidency from 45 to 40 per cent, or 35 per cent with a five-point lead over the runner-up, and the 2014 reform (Law No. 854) eliminated the second round, established a simple majority to win, and repealed article 147 so as to authorise re-election without term limits.