A tin-pot election that started with the frightening
possibility of electing a zombie governmentculminated in an overwhelming victory for
the ruling Sandinista Front early Monday morning amid allegations of dirty
tricks, official mischief, voter exclusion, political tomfoolery,
post-electoral violence and system collapse...
As of early Monday morning, gangs of Sandinsitas and
Liberals were clashing in La Paz Centro (León), there were reports of gunfire
in Sebaco (Matagalpa) and Santo Domingo (Chontales), and bouts of violence in
Jinotega. In addition, Núñez says the Sandinista Front reportedly cut the
electricity in municipality of La Libertad (Chontales) when it started to
appear that the PLI was going to win the mayor’s office in President Ortega’s
hometown...
...the “zombie parties”—the ALN, APRE and the Conservative Party—are verifiably
undead. In virtually all of the rural municipalities, the three phony parties
won only one or two votes each. That means that not even the family members of
the dead candidates voted for their deceased relative as a final gesture of
loving memory. The shameful electoral performance by those three parties
offers compelling mathematical proof of their inexistence and—incidentally—of
the CSE’s corruption...
The biggest opposition complaint yesterday was over
inconsistencies in the voter registries. Many voters claimed their names had
mysteriously disappeared from the voter registration lists posted at the voting
centers where they had voted all their lives. Others complained that their names
appeared on the main voter registration posted on the front wall of the voting
center, but not on the list at the voting booth, which prevented them from
casting their ballot.
The voter-registration problems are so chronic in Nicaragua
that the phenomenon has its own name: “raton loco”—named after the voters who
are made to run around like one of the three blind mice trying to figure out
where they are supposed to vote (see how they run)...
More than 20% of Nicaraguans who tried to vote Sunday were
excluded from the polls because they did not appear on either of the two voter
registries, according to a preliminary report by electoral watchdog the
Institute for Development and Democracy (IPADE).
No comments:
Post a Comment