Nicaragua's Ortega Declares There Will 'Never Again' Be Elections, Cementing Two Decades of Rule

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has declared that his country will never hold elections again, an extraordinary announcement that formalizes the one-party grip he and his wife have tightened over nearly two decades in power. The statement effectively cancels a national vote that had been scheduled for November 2027.

"There will never again be elections here for them to try to seize the government, to seize power," Ortega said at a rally marking the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution that toppled the Somoza dictatorship in 1979. He aimed his remarks at what he called "the political parties set up by the Yankees, controlled by the Somocistas," language he routinely uses to dismiss the domestic opposition as foreign-backed stooges.

Ortega said his government would work with the National Assembly, which his party dominates, to "build a wall, a barrier, against the coup plotters and the traitors, so that no matter how much money the Yankees give them, they will never be able to return to government." The pledge amounts to a legal architecture designed to permanently exclude challengers.

The 80-year-old former guerrilla has ruled Nicaragua continuously since 2007, after an earlier stint leading the country in the 1980s. In recent years he has governed side by side with his wife, Rosario Murillo, whom he elevated to co-president, jailing or exiling political rivals, shuttering independent media and stripping thousands of critics of their citizenship following mass anti-government protests in 2018 that were met with a deadly crackdown.

Critics and human rights groups have long argued that Nicaragua's elections were already hollow exercises, with credible opponents imprisoned or barred before recent votes. But Ortega's open declaration that balloting will simply cease removes even the pretense of electoral competition, placing Nicaragua among the hemisphere's most entrenched authoritarian states.

The announcement is likely to deepen Nicaragua's international isolation and draw fresh condemnation from Washington and regional governments that have already imposed sanctions on Ortega's inner circle. For ordinary Nicaraguans, many of whom have fled the country in waves over the past several years, the message was stark: the door to choosing a different government through the ballot box, Ortega made clear, has been sealed shut.