Nicaragua president says country will not hold any more elections to prevent the opposition from coming to power

Nicaragua's long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has announced that the country will no longer hold elections to prevent the opposition from coming to power. The 80-year-old authoritarian leader, who has been in office since 2007, also said he would work with the congress he controls to pass new laws that would "build a wall" against the opposition. Ortega made the announcement on Sunday during the official ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which he helped overthrow the brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. "There won't be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power," Ortega said to his supporters. "The days when parties backed by the Yankees (United States) and the Somocistas would return to power are over - never again," he added, in the 80-year-old's first public appearance in two months. The Trump administration has described the Ortega government as a dictatorship, and imposed sanctions on more ‌than 2,350 Nicaraguan officials and their relatives. Nicaragua's last election in 2021 was widely disputed after Ortega detained opponents and business leaders and criminalised dissent. Last year, Ortega further consolidated his power through a series of constitutional reforms that included naming his ‌wife Rosario Murillo as "co-president" and extending the presidential term to six years. He and his wife control virtually every aspect of the government, including the armed forces and the judiciary. The UN Human Rights Council has accused Ortega and Murillo's government of transforming the country "into an authoritarian state" and systematically violating human rights. In 2018, Ortega responded to widespread anti-government protests with a crackdown ‌in which more than 300 people were k!lled. Felix Maradiaga, a presidential hopeful for the opposition who was jailed in Nicaragua from 2021 to 2023 before being expelled to the US, said he saw Ortega's comments less as a show of force than as "a confession of fear". "Ortega publicly acknowledged what has always been his true intention: to prevent his tyrannical project from being subjected to ‌any form of democratic competition," Maradiaga ‌said. by Linda Ikeji at 21/07/2026 8:26 AM | Share this Story