MANAGUA, Nicaragua — A day after questioned elections, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government on Monday set about painting as a historic democratic victory what many of the world’s democracies condemned as a sham.
Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council said that with nearly all the ballots counted, Ortega had won over 75 percent of the vote. The outcome was never in doubt after his government jailed seven of the leading potential opposition candidates, clearing the field for Ortega to sweep to a fourth consecutive five-year term.
With all government institutions firmly within Ortega’s grasp and the opposition exiled, jailed or in hiding, the 75-year-old leader eroded what hope remained the country could soon return to a democratic path. Instead, he appeared poised to test the international community’s resolve and continue thumbing his nose at their targeted sanctions and statements of disapproval.
Ortega and Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo celebrated the election results in Managua’s Revolution Plaza later Monday, with Ortega unleashing a torrent of abuse on the European Union, which said in a statement earlier that the elections “lacked legitimacy.”
