Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced on Monday that he will run for a fourth term in November’s general election, according to his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party.
During the party convention, Gustavo Porras, an FSLN legislator, declared, “We have our formula, our candidates were elected unanimously.”
Vice-President Rosario Murillo, Ortega’s wife, will be his running companion once more. Just hours before the enrollment deadline for candidates, all 2,932 members present at the FSLN virtual congress confirmed the presidential power couple’s election ticket.
Ortega, a former Marxist guerilla who is accused of dictatorship by his opponents, has been in office since 2007.
Since the latest election in 2017, his 70-year-old wife has served as his vice-president.
After detaining more than 30 opposition figures in the last two months, including seven presidential candidates, the government has been accused of repression.
It forced the main opposition alliance to field a surprise presidential candidate in November, with Oscar Sobalvarro, 68, a former right-wing guerrilla, and Berenice Quezada, a 27-year-old ex-beauty queen with no political experience.
The US and Canada had already sanctioned Ortega, Murillo, and other top government officials for the violent repression of demonstrators in 2018, which resulted in the deaths of over 300 people.
Critics accuse Ortega of making a flurry of arrests since the beginning of June in order to eliminate any real competition in November’s election.
Cristiana Chamorro, the daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who defeated Ortega in the 1990 election, is among those jailed. Chamorro was the odds-on favorite to beat Ortega this time.
