Outside the Beltway

Ortega to be Allowed Re-election Bid in Nicaragua

Steven L. Taylor · Saturday, February 1, 2014 · 3 comments

Via the BBC: Nicaragua: Ortega allowed to run for third successive term

The Nicaraguan National Assembly has approved changes to the constitution that would allow President Daniel Ortega to run for a third successive term in 2016.

The bill scraps limits to the number of terms Nicaraguan presidents can serve.

[…]

The reform also scraps the current rule, which says that the winning candidate needs to receive at least 35% of the vote to be appointed president.

He was able to run for his second terms after a ruling 2011 after a questionable change to the constitution in 2009.

All this leads to the following quip (from the BBC piece), which will resonate for those who are familiar with the history of Nicaragua:

"We do not need a Somoza, sorry, an Ortega forever," opposition legislator Alberto Lacayo commented ironically during Tuesday’s debate.

FILED UNDER: Latin America, World Politics, BBC, Nicaragua

About Steven L. Taylor

Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

Brett says:

Saturday, 1 February 2014 at 15:22

So they finally changed it on paper, huh? It was already a joke, with the Nicaraguan Supreme Court basically saying they couldn’t enforce the two-term restriction, and Ortega more or less going full Illiberal Democracy on us.

Oh, well. Nothing new under the sun in Latin America, and a reminder of why they should avoid strong presidential systems like the plague. There’s too much history there of strongmen on the right and charismatic El Presidentes on the left messing up anything resembling institutional rule of law.
wr says:

Sunday, 2 February 2014 at 11:38

Wow. If only we had a Republican president who would sell some missiles to Iran to raise money to buy guns for a right-wing militia. That would show those Nicaraguans what democracy is all about!
al-Ameda says:

Monday, 3 February 2014 at 16:23

@wr:

Wow. If only we had a Republican president who would sell some missiles to Iran to raise money to buy guns for a right-wing militia. That would show those Nicaraguans what democracy is all about!

Please, that is so far-fetched, it could never happen.