General elections were held in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

on 6 November 2016 to elect the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

, the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

and members of the Central American Parliament. Incumbent President Daniel Ortega of the

Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cé ...

(FSLN) was re-elected for a third consecutive term amid charges he and the FSLN used their control of state resources to bypass constitutional term limits and hamstring political rivals. The FSLN benefited from strong economic growth and relatively low levels of crime compared to neighbouring countries. According to the official results, Ortega was reelected with more than 70% of the votes. However, the election was questioned by the opposition due to the dismissal of sixteen opposition deputies months prior to the election and the complaints of both electoral fraud and voter intimidation.

Background

Four months before the elections, the Nicaraguan Supreme Court removed the disputed Independent Liberal Party (PLI) leader

Eduardo Montealegre Eduardo Montealegre Rivas (born 9 May 1955) is a Nicaraguan politician. He ran for president in the 2006 general election as the candidate of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN-PC) a split-off of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) in allia ...

from office, decreeing that Pedro Reyes was the leader of the PLI. After 16 deputies from the PLI and its

Sandinista Renovation Movement The Sandinista Renovation Movement (''Movimiento Renovador Sandinista'' or MRS, in Spanish) is a Nicaraguan political party founded on 21 May 1995. It defines itself as a democratic and progressive party, made of women and men, which promotes the ...

ally objected, the Supreme Electoral Council ordered them removed from the

and empowered Reyes to select their replacements.

Electoral system

The President of Nicaragua was elected using

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

voting system. The 90 elected members of the National Assembly were elected by two methods; 20 members were elected from a single nationwide constituency, whilst 70 members were elected from 17 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from 2 to 19 seats. Both types of election were carried out using closed list

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

with no

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

. A further two seats were reserved for the runner-up in the presidential election and the outgoing president (or their vice president). Lists of candidates to the

and to the Central American Parliament had to be composed of 50% male and 50% female candidates.

Conduct

In June 2016 Ortega announced international observers would not be allowed to oversee the elections. The

Carter Center The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University just after his defeat in the 1980 United States presid ...

termed this "an attack on the international community... We...lament this decision to ignore a key portion of Nicaragua's own electoral law." However, less than two weeks before the elections, the Organization of American States accepted an invitation to send a delegation "to meet with experts and state bodies involved in the electoral process" from 5–7 November. According to the official results, Ortega was reelected with more than 70% of the votes. However, the election was questioned by the opposition due to the dismissal of the opposition deputies, the lack of international observers and the complaints of both electoral fraud and voter intimidation.

Results

President

Ortega was widely expected to win due to the popularity of his social programmes and because he faced no obvious political challenger.Nicaragua leader Daniel Ortega wins third consecutive term
BBC

National Assembly

List of elected deputies

Central American Parliament

References

{{Nicaraguan elections Presidential elections in Nicaragua

2016 in Nicaragua

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

November 2016 events in North America Election and referendum articles with incomplete results