Election 2011

While there is more in the January 31 NicaNet bulletin the primary article is about last year's election. It includes information on the recently released OAS report, Clinton's statements, some local Nicaragua input including the words of Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos and an attempt to put the pieces together.

The whole bulletin is available here. Additional articles cover economic growth, renewable energy and organic beekeeping.

Clinton said the U.S. and other countries must therefore look for ways to hold Nicaragua accountable - such as applying "aggressive scrutiny" to project loans at the Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank. She said the U.S. will oppose any project that doesn't meet the "high standards" of the banks or provide adequate development impact.

Full story from Voice of America

Two separate articles appeared on the COHA web site in the last few days about Nicaragua. Each is a good read.

The first, Nicaragua: the other side by Fred Morris takes a long look at the November election. While we discussed much of what is presented in the article here right after the election, it is is nice to see someone with Morris' credentials telling the story.

From that article:

While we have discussed the issue of 2011 election results/irregularities in Nicaragua in multiple posts, there is an article in The Cutting Edge News that seems to put all the points into a single place.

Specifically, it addresses the pre-election poll results, observer credentials, voter registration and the OAS and EU analysis of the process.

What is also revealing are the events or ‘irregularities’ that the OAS or EU mission teams do not report.

From the Carter Center in both English and Spanish: http://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/nicaragua-110911.html

We acknowledge the strong electoral support given to President Ortega in Sunday's election. Nevertheless, we are troubled by the reports of significant deficiencies in the 2011 electoral process in Nicaragua and their implications for democratic governance. It is perplexing that a country that is showing social and economic improvement has at the same time permitted an erosion of democratic institutions.

If you grok Spanish, check out Crowdmap. It is a map-based site for reports on the election where you (that is, anyone) can add events.

The site will continue to accept new events until January and you can search by various criteria.

Even for the Spanish impaired, the mainstream Nicaraguan press will offer you pretty easy to deal with information on election results. The front page of the web site of both major Nicaraguan newspapers have a language-free presentation of the results. While this information will not always be at the front page URLs, I am sure it will be up there for the next day or two.

While I expect a lot of press coverage in English, these two sites are likely to be the most up to date.

The first article I have seen from the international mainstream press is from the CBC. The numbers with 16% of the vote counted look like this:

Ortega had 64 per cent of the votes in a count early Monday, compared with 29 per cent for his nearest challenger, Fabio Gadea. Conservative Arnoldo Aleman, a former president, was a distant third with six per cent after national elections on Sunday.

At this point, of course, there aren't any. The official word is that the preliminary results will be announced between 9 and 10PM today. The polls close at 7PM but the law says that anyone in line before then must have a chance to vote. Expect spotty results this evening with more complete numbers on Monday.

There has been little interest in this election from outside Nicaragua but today I see... 15 predictable news articles from the usual suspects. They range from....

The US State department calling for fair elections Elections In Nicaragua;

The Wall Street Journal's Ortega Won't Let Nicaragua Go;

I was just wondering if anyone knew what the exact laws are for alcohol sales surrounding the elections. The consensus I've heard so far is no sales Saturday through Monday, but does anyone know the hours when sales start and stop?

Thanks! Tuck

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Carter Center will send a delegation to monitor the upcoming election. It will not be official election observers but rather just a team to, well, see.

The delegation wants to learn about the perspectives of various social and political figures, the electoral process and post-electoral scenarios for Nicaragua.

It appears Nicaragua has a two man race: Gadea vs. Ortega. If we accept that as the starting point (that is, ignore the other players, whether Ortega should be allowed to run, ...), what is this campaign about?

I am not the expert here and not a Nicaraguan voter so I just want to try to get this discussion directed. Hopefully we can hear from some of the NL members who live in Nicaragua and can vote.

From what I hear on the radio, read in newspapers and hear chatting with Nicaraguans, the two sides seem to play out like this:

The Costa Rica News offers a look at the direction Ortega II is taking Nicaragua and why. The article has a dumb title and needs some serious editing but, in spite these flaws, offers some reasonable insights. (My guess is that it is sourced from something in Spanish but no credit or author is given.)

The title, from an article in The Economist is misleading both in what it specifically says and as a realistic title for the article which follows. But, there are some interesting points made in the article.

Far from pro-Ortega, it at least recognizes what I call the pragmatic side of Ortega and the FSLN.