US threatens action as Ortega sweeps to fourth term in Nicaragua

Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega easily locked in a fourth consecutive term after suppressing political rivals, results showed on Monday, leading Washington to warn it would press for a "return to democracy" and free and fair elections.

Nicaragua’s electoral council said that with roughly half the ballots counted, a preliminary tally gave Mr Ortega’s Sandinista alliance about 75 per cent of votes.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the United States would work with other democratic governments and was ready to use a range of tools, including possible sanctions, visa restrictions and co-ordinated actions against those it said were complicit in supporting the Nicaraguan government's "undemocratic acts".

However, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov backed Mr Ortega, saying US calls for countries not to recognise the outcome were "unacceptable".

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The criticism of Sunday’s contest by Western and many Latin American nations began well before the vote, after Mr Ortega detained opponents and business leaders, cancelled rival parties and criminalised dissent over the course of months.

Election observers from the European Union and the Organization of American States were not allowed to scrutinise the vote and journalists have been barred from entering the country.

A statement by all 27 EU members accused Mr Ortega of “systematic incarceration, harassment and intimidation” of opponents, journalists and activists.

The EU said the elections "complete the conversion of Nicaragua into an autocratic regime". Chile, Costa Rica, Spain and Britain called for detained opposition leaders to be freed.

“Elections were neither, free, nor fair, nor competitive,” said José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister.

Former rebel

Mr Ortega's victory consolidates the increasingly repressive political model he has built in recent years along with his wife, vice-president Rosario Murillo.

A former Marxist rebel who helped topple the right-wing Somoza family dictatorship in the late 1970s, Mr Ortega says he is defending Nicaragua against unscrupulous adversaries bent on ousting him with the aid of foreign powers. His government has passed a series of laws that make it easy to prosecute opponents for crimes such as “betraying the homeland”.

On Sunday, Mr Ortega – the longest-serving leader in the Americas – hailed the election as a victory delivered by the “immense majority of Nicaraguans”, and lashed out at domestic opponents, calling them “demons”.

Just five little-known candidates of mostly small parties allied to Mr Ortega’s Sandinistas ran against him on the ballot.

"Most people I know decided not to vote, they say it's madness," said Naomi, an opponent of the government from the eastern port of Bluefields, who declined to give her last name, citing fear of reprisals. "What they're doing here is a joke."

The electoral council said turnout was 65 per cent.

In the 1980s, Mr Ortega served a single term as president before being voted out. He returned to the top job in 2007.

After initially delivering solid economic growth and attracting private investment, Mr Ortega’s government changed course in response to 2018 anti-government protests. More than 300 people were killed during the ensuing crackdown.

Thousands of Nicaraguans have since fled the country. Many of them gathered in neighboring Costa Rica on Sunday in a show of defiance against Mr Ortega.

Prolonged discontent is expected to fuel more emigration to Costa Rica and the United States, where record numbers of Nicaraguans have been apprehended at the border this year.

Rights activist Haydee Castillo, who was arrested in 2018 and now lives in the United States, called the election "a farce".

“He has not conceded anything despite the resolutions and declarations that the international community has made,” Ms Castillo said. – Reuters