Thwarting democracy in Nicaragua

StatesmanJournal.com:

Another milestone has been reached in the continued dismantling of democracy in Nicaragua.

Last week, President Daniel Ortega's government effectively eliminated two opposition parties. Under the guise of enforcing bureaucratic regulations, the government's Supreme Electoral Tribunal revoked the political party status of the Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS) and the right-leaning Conservative Party.

The ruling is the latest in a series of efforts by Ortega to thwart dissent, undermine democratic institutions and keep himself in power.

In April, the same tribunal postponed municipal elections in some northern localities because, the government claimed, the havoc of Hurricane Felix last year made it impossible to ensure proper conditions for the election. The opposition and foreign observers, however, said this was just another Ortega ploy to avoid a Sandinista defeat in a region where his popularity has diminished. The election, originally scheduled for November, is now set for January.

Also early this year, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal decided to, figuratively, cut off the head of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), another opposition party. No doubt the government found the ALN leader, Eduardo Montealegre, too big a threat after his second-place showing in the 2006 presidential election against Ortega.

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There is much more.

It is not too surprising that Ortega is showing his totalitarian stripes. His command economy communism can't survive in a free country with open and honest elections. If there is one constant with communism it is the lack of honest democracy. Some communist governments are more genocidal than others, but they all hate freedom. It is what control freaks do.

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