Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said the country would no longer hold elections. Abandoning the vote was necessary to prevent the opposition from coming to power, he said, Reuters reports.
“There will be no more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said at a ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, which first brought him to power.
The 80-year-old president did not specify what legal mechanisms would be used to abolish elections.
Opposition figures living outside Nicaragua described Ortega’s statement as a sign of weakness and an attempt to eliminate all political competition.
Ortega first led the country in 1981. After losing the 1990 election, he remained in opposition until 2006 and returned to the presidency in 2007.
Authorities declared him the winner of elections in 2011, 2016 and 2021. Reuters notes that the credibility of those results was questioned amid the persecution of Ortega’s political opponents.