DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD | Giving citizens a voice
17 November 2008
Nicaragua Needs Vote Recount Under International Observation
State Department says “widespread irregularities” seen in municipal vote
Washington — Widespread reports of election fraud prompted the Bush administration to urge Nicaragua’s government to hold a recount, in the presence of international observers, of the country’s November 9 municipal elections.
Rob McInturff, a spokesman for the State Department, told America.gov November 14 that the United States “remains concerned that elections conducted this week in Nicaragua do not reflect the will of the Nicaraguan people.” The European Union, Organization of American States (OAS), Catholic bishops and “various economic and civic groups in Nicaragua have all expressed similar concern,” he added.
McInturff said the one instance of a recount conducted by Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council had been restricted to the municipality of Managua and was done outside the presence of international observers or Nicaragua’s main opposition party, the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC).
As an OAS member, Nicaragua must adhere to the Inter-American Democratic Charter’s Article 23, which commits it to “ensuring free and fair electoral processes,” McInturff said. He urged the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) led by President Daniel Ortega to “permit credible observation of the full recount.”
Nicaraguan civic group Etica y Transparencia (Ethics and Transparency), which was among the groups whose requests to officially monitor the elections were denied, nevertheless sent 30,000 volunteers to polling places and reported irregularities in 32 percent of the locations it monitored, according to press reports.
WIDESPREAD IRREGULARITIES
In a November 10 statement, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood noted “with concern” reports by both Nicaraguan observers and opposition parties that “widespread irregularities” had occurred throughout Nicaragua in the November 9 voting.
“Among the more worrisome charges is that in many cases, the opposition parties had no access to the centers where the votes were being tabulated,” Wood said. In the period leading up to the elections, Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council decided, for the first time since 1990, not to accredit international observers. This action, Wood said, “undercut” the observation efforts.
“This circumstance, combined with instances of intimidation, violence, and harassment of opposition political party members and [nongovernmental organization] representatives, created conditions that were not conducive to free and fair elections,” he said.
Initial official election results reported that President Ortega’s FSLN won more than 90 out of 146 municipalities while the opposition PLC won 46. According to the BBC, PLC spokesman Leonel Teller said his party would not “accept the electoral results due to so many anomalies and irregularities," and called for international observers to conduct a full recount.
