{"id":199218,"date":"2021-11-15T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=199218"},"modified":"2021-11-10T06:41:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T06:41:26","slug":"what-i-saw-on-election-day-in-nicaragua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/11\/what-i-saw-on-election-day-in-nicaragua\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Saw on Election Day in Nicaragua"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Voting station panel – Election staff<\/p><\/div>\n

10 Nov 2021 – <\/em>US media and politicians have condemned the November 7 Nicaragua election as a \u201cfraud\u201d and \u201csham\u201d.\u00a0 On the day of the election, the White House issued a statement<\/a> saying Nicaragua held a \u201cpantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n

But are these accusations true?<\/p>\n

Along with other international volunteers, I was an eye-witness to the election last Sunday. Previously I have been an observer in elections in neighboring Honduras. \u00a0Here is a snapshot of what I saw:<\/p>\n

Our group of 6 people (two from Canada and four from US) visited three voting centers and twenty voting stations in the small city of Juigalpa in Chontales province.<\/p>\n

At 7 am Sunday morning, there were long lines of voters.\u00a0 Hours later, there was still a steady of stream of voters. Election staff said the turnout seemed higher than the last election.<\/p>\n

Voters were all ages.. Nicaraguans can vote starting at age 16.\u00a0 There were lots of families coming to vote together. There were kids playing on swings while their parents voted. There were very old or disabled peopled voting. Family members were allowed to help them if needed. Otherwise election staff helped them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Checking ID<\/p><\/div>\n

One elderly woman got dizzy and almost collapsed as she was to enter the voting station.\u00a0 She was adamant that she wanted to vote before taken away. The ambulance arrived in about five minutes and she was taken to hospital despite her protestations that she wanted to vote first.<\/p>\n

The process was well organized and efficient.\u00a0 At the entrance there were staff with computers. They scanned the citizen\u2019s ID card, confirmed the identity and that he or she was registered for this voting center. Then they explained which voting station to go to. The voting station assignments were also printed and taped to walls at the entrance.<\/p>\n

There were 3,100\u00a0 voting centers<\/a> with 13,459 voting stations throughout the country. These are mostly in educational institutions (schools or colleges).\u00a0 Each voting station serves about 400 voters.\u00a0 In urban areas,\u00a0 there are 10 or 20\u00a0 voting stations in one voting center (school).<\/p>\n

A huge number of people staffed the election process.\u00a0 At each voting station, there were about ten people performing various tasks: two \u201celectoral policia\u201d for sanitary spraying the hands of each voter and to resolve any issues; three people verifying voter ID, recording the signature, and passing out the ballot; two or more \u201cfiscal\u201d from different parties who monitored the process. At each voting center, there were two co-coordinators. At all positions there were equal numbers of men and women.<\/p>\n

All election staff wore vests or t-shirts with their official role as part of the Supreme Electoral Council. In Nicaragua this organization is independent of the government and responsible for organizing the election nationwide.<\/p>\n

All voters wore masks and proceeded without difficulty, one person at a time. The process was clear: show your identity card and confirm that you are registered to vote in this station; receive an official ballot; mark your choices on the ballot (secretly); deposit your ballot in the ballot box; receive your identity card back;\u00a0\u00a0 have your finger painted to indicate you have voted and to prevent double – voting.<\/p>\n

The paper ballots were counted at the voting station and verified by all the party representatives. The results were then transmitted electronically to the Supreme Electoral Council headquarters for tabulation of the final results.<\/p>\n

Media accusations that FSLN leader Daniel Ortega was running unopposed are blatantly false. The voting ballot was clear and showed six competing parties.\u00a0 Media reports<\/a> that the population is fearful of President Daniel Ortega are laughably false and disproven by the large turnout. The final results show a turnout of 65% of registered voters with about 75% of those voting for FSLN.<\/p>\n

We asked \u201cfiscal\u201d monitors representing both the Sandinista Front and opposition parties if there had been any problems. Each time they said the process was proceeding calmly -\u201cTodo tranquilo<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 One would-be voter said he had moved and not been able to register his new location because he was too busy working. The voting staff calmly said, \u201cSorry, you had months to register your new location. You will have to vote at your old residence voting station.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Voting from a wheelchair<\/p><\/div>\n

We asked numerous voters why they were voting. The answers were that the country\u2019s leadership matters, the constitution requires it, and to protect Nicaraguan sovereignty.\u00a0 \u201cSovereignty\u201d and \u201cpeace\u201d were the most common responses.<\/p>\n

It is ironic and hypocritical that US media and politicians, who reject any question regarding the integrity of the US election, smear the Nicaraguan election based on false information. Biased media and information censorship are a major cause of the lack of knowledge and ability of major news outlets to repeat nonsense without correction. An example: While we were in Nicaragua, one of our team members, Dr. Tim Bood from Halifax Canada, was banned from Facebook<\/a> just for posting a message regarding US interference in Nicaragua.<\/p>\n

Washington politicians carry on the long tradition of US interference and aggression against Nicaragua. A few days before the election, the US Senate passed the RENACER Act<\/a> imposing more sanctions based on false information about the election process in Nicaragua.<\/p>\n

The high turnout and vote for the FSLN in the Nicaraguan election shows that the Nicaraguan people are not intimidated by Washington\u2019s bullying and threats.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rick Sterling is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and an investigative journalist who lives in the SF Bay Area, California. He can be contacted at <\/em>rsterling1@protonmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All photos by the author<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Nov 2021 – US media and politicians have condemned the 7 Nov Nicaragua election as a \u201cfraud\u201d and \u201csham\u201d. However, the high turnout and vote for the FSLN shows that the Nicaraguan people are not intimidated by Washington\u2019s bullying and threats. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":199219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[392,541,1308],"class_list":["post-199218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-elections","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-nicaragua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}