In the absence of the OAS and the EU, who will observe the elections in Nicaragua?

The international observers who habitually monitor the electoral processes in Latin America, such as the OAS, the European Union (EU) and the Carter Center, will be absent in the general elections next Sunday in Nicaragua, which will be accompanied by a group of people who support the regime. of the president and candidate for reelection, Daniel Ortega.

“We are not going to send any electoral observation mission there (to Nicaragua) because Mr. Ortega has already been in charge of imprisoning all political opponents who were standing in the elections,” said the high representative of the EU for the Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.

“We cannot expect this process to yield a legitimate result that we can consider, quite the contrary.“Said Borrel, who described the elections in Nicaragua as”completely a fake”.

Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan Executive decided not to invite the Organization of American States (OAS) as observers, according to Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, “after his participation in a coup in Bolivia”In 2019.

“We cannot invite someone who has participated in the promotion and execution of a coup against a democratic country, such as Bolivia,” Moncada indicated during an official visit to Turkey two weeks ago.

Who are the “electoral escorts”?

Nicaragua accredited 170 “electoral escorts”From various countries for Sunday’s elections, mostly, according to the Nicaraguan multidisciplinary observatory Urnas Abiertas, politicians related to the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

Between the “companions”Are the representative of the Movement of Allendista Socialism of Chile Gregorio Luis Mondaca Crestto and the members of the Communist Party of Spain José Luis Centella and Miguel Ángel Bustamante.

Also the former president of Veterans for Peace of the United States Gerry Condon and the secretary of International Relations of the Communist Party of Argentina, Jorge Kreyness.

Centella, Urnas Abiertas, which defines itself as impartial and which shares analysis on justice and electoral risk, identified as “an open sympathizer“Of the Governments of Cuba and Venezuela, as well as of”chinese communism”And Ortega, while he pointed to Bustamante as a sympathizer of the Sandinistas in Spain.

Condon and Kreyness were described as activists for Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in their countries.

Difference between companion and observer

During a virtual forum in which some of the companions were presented, the magistrate of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), Mayra Salinas, explained that “The international companion is like the friend who comes to your house, who you invite to come to your house and can accompany you in a process of sharing, seeing, enjoying, getting to know him and that he can make a recommendation.”.

Instead, he criticized, “election observers want to be above your national process”.

The lack of observation shows the lack of transparency of the process, pointed out, for his part, the Nicaraguan sociologist Humberto Belli, in a letter from exile.

According to Belli, who was Minister of Education in the Government of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) and who is accused by the authorities of committing the crime of “treason“, Ortega is preparing”a colossal lie”In the Sunday elections, in terms of the level of participation.

Disguise abstention?

That is the reason, which is why, in his opinion, the authorities have ruled out international observers, such as the OAS, the EU and the Carter Center, prohibited the entry of journalistic missions to the country and have not accredited the national and foreign press in Nicaragua so that they have access to voting centers.

“The dictatorship will do everything possible to hide the inevitable abstention”Said Belli, for whom the electoral body, under the control of the Sandinistas, will say after the voting that there was high participation and that Ortega won by a large majority.

“The refusal to international observation was, precisely, to be able to do these things“, I note.

Last May, before the wave of arrests began against opposition leaders, businessmen, peasants, journalists, activists and independent professionals, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, warned that Nicaragua was heading to “worst possible choice”Due to the lack of guarantees to celebrate a free, fair and transparent process.

Some 4.4 million Nicaraguans are called to go to the polls to elect the president and vice president of the Republic, 90 deputies before the National Assembly and 20 before the Central American Parliament.

Ortega leaves as the favorite for his fifth and fourth consecutive term, amid the arrest of seven aspiring opposition presidential candidates who were emerging as his main rivals.