It¡¯s rare these days to hear a dictator openly admit he won¡¯t bother holding elections. Even the world¡¯s most brutal authoritarian regimes usually resort to sham votes and other tricks to cloak themselves in a veneer of legitimacy.
Not Nicaragua.
Daniel Ortega, the country¡¯s authoritarian president since 2007, this month?acknowledged that the vote scheduled for November 2027 simply won¡¯t happen. ¡°There won¡¯t be any more elections,¡± the 80-year-old former leftist guerrilla declared during the annual commemoration of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, arguing that holding them would allow his opponents to ¡°capture the government, to capture power.¡± Duh.
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