The Nicaraguan Elections: A Massive Turnout in Favor of Democracy

 
Finally, on November 6, Nicaraguan learned the identity of their next president: Enrique Bolaños, a 73-year-old businessman and former vice president in the administration of current president Arnoldo Alemán. Bolaños won 54% of the more than two million votes cast in a contest that stood out as much for its impressive voter turnout as the faults it revealed in the electoral system.

Many voters were forced to wait in long lines on Election Day. Polling places opened late, polling staff failed to show up and the machines for verifying voter identity broke down. According to Gabriel Solórzano, president of the civic group Ethics and Transparency, which sent 5000 representatives to observe the elections, farmers unfamiliar with the electoral laws manned the polls in some rural areas. Observers from the Carter Center also noted irregularities in the vote count by the Supreme Electoral Council in Managua, which delayed reporting the results.

Despite these complaints, however, post-election reports by the Carter Center, the OAS and the European Union described the elections as relatively normal. Nicaraguans elected a new president in a process that met international standards and reflected the wishes of the country's citizens.

The November 4 elections culminated a campaign characterized by mutual accusations between Bolaños, the candidate of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, who led the country from 1979 to 1990. The defeat was the third in a row for Ortega, whose rule left the country in a state of economic and social collapse. Nicaraguans seemed unconvinced by his campaign slogan, "love is stronger than hate," opting instead for the business-savvy Bolaños and his promises to create jobs, help the poor and stimulate investment.

As Nicaraguan political analyst Carlos Fernando Chamorro told the New York Times, many voters wavered between fear and desperation. Ortega embodied their dread of economic chaos and tensions with the United States, while at the same time, unemployment, poverty and corruption created an increasingly desperate situation. "Bolaños had the fear vote in his favor," Chamorro argued.

The new government will inherit an external debt of $6.6 billion, the equivalent of 10 times Nicaragua's annual exports, and a poverty rate of 70% of the population. In his victory speech, Bolaños announced that the time had come to build a new nation based on the principles of transparency and political integrity. "There are no winners or losers. What we have gained today is a new Nicaragua," he proclaimed, promising to be the president of all Nicaraguans. To do so, he will have to make his actions live up to his speeches and campaign promises.