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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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U.S. Concerned
By Nicaragua Election Ruling
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on
Thursday expressed concern about a
Nicaraguan court ruling that opens the way
for leftist President Daniel Ortega to seek
re-election in the 2011 election.
Nicaragua's Supreme Court on Monday issued a
ruling that helped to clear the way for
Ortega to run for another term, following a
petition from him and a group of mayors last
week. The country's electoral court said it
would comply with the ruling.
The U.S. State Department questioned the way
the court had reached its decision, and said
the move threatens democratic governance.
"The ruling appears to short-circuit,
through legal maneuverings, the open and
transparent consideration by the Nicaraguan
people of the possibility for presidential
re-election," State Department spokesman Ian
Kelly said in a statement.
"We share the concern of many Nicaraguans
that this situation is part of a larger
pattern of questionable and irregular
governmental actions," Kelly added.
Latin American countries are increasingly
wrestling with the issue of presidential
term limits as leftists such as Venezuela's
self-styled socialist President Hugo Chavez
seek to stay in power as long as they can
win elections.
Ortega -- a left-wing former guerrilla
fighter whose Sandinista rebels fought
U.S.-backed government forces during a Cold
War-era civil war -- first took power after
Nicaragua's 1979 revolution and was formally
elected president in 1984.
After his Sandinista party lost power in
1990, the opposition banned re-election with
a clause in the 1995 constitution.
Ortega returned to power in 2007 after
running on a platform of reconciliation but
presidents in Nicaragua are barred from
running consecutively or serving more than
two terms.
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