Nicaragua Will Hold No Further Elections to Bar Opposition Return, Ortega Says

President Daniel Ortega said the decision would prevent opposition forces from returning to power. He made the announcement on July 19, 2026, during a speech commemorating the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution that overthrew Anastasio Somoza in 1979.

The 80-year-old leader, who has served as president since 2007 after an earlier term from 1985 to 1990, extended the presidential term to six years in 2025 and named his wife, Rosario Murillo, as co-president that year.

“The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again,” he stated. “There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” he added.

His government detained several opposition candidates ahead of the 2021 presidential election. More than 300 people died during a 2018 crackdown on protests against the government, after which authorities revoked the citizenship of hundreds of Nicaraguans.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has accused Nicaraguan officials of arbitrary detentions, torture, extrajudicial executions, and persecution of civil society and the media.

Ortega has also ordered the detention of former Sandinista comrades who fought alongside him in the 1979 revolution.