Nicaragua's President Ortega Announces No Upcoming Elections, Effectively Cancelling 2027 Vote

President Daniel Ortega told a crowd on the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution that Nicaragua will not hold elections in the foreseeable future, effectively cancelling the presidential vote scheduled for November 2027. The decision follows a January 2025 congressional vote that extended the five-year presidential term by one year.

Ortega, who returned to the presidency in 2007 and has overseen constitutional changes and a crackdown on opposition, declared, "There won’t be any more elections," and added, "Never, never, never," while criticizing the United States and parties he said were linked to the former Somoza regime.

Opposition figures and rights groups described the announcement as a further consolidation of power. Juan Sebastián Chamorro, a former 2021 candidate released from prison in 2023, said the move mirrors one-party systems such as those in China and Cuba. Tiziano Breda, a senior analyst at ACLED, noted that Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo appear to fear any political opening that could challenge their authority and have chosen to eliminate electoral competition altogether.

Human-rights lawyer Danny Ramírez Ayérdiz said the statement “reveals the face of a dictatorship that, without any shame, has entrenched itself in power,” and warned of a possible increase in repression against those demanding elections.

The government has previously released dozens of political prisoners to the United States and Guatemala, often stripping them of citizenship and property. International observers continue to question the legitimacy of Nicaragua’s electoral processes and the broader human-rights situation.