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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Nicaragua’s
Chief Justice Denounces Pro-Ortega Ruling
MANAGUA – The chief justice of Nicaragua’s
Supreme Court said Tuesday that a ruling by
several of his colleagues nullifying term
limits on elected officials represents
“legal anarchy.”
Manuel Martinez told reporters that the
ruling is illegal in terms of the manner in
which the quorum on the high court’s
Constitutional Chamber was formed.
He was reacting to the Constitutional
Chamber’s decision to declare “inapplicable”
the constitutional article that would keep
President Daniel Ortega from seeking a
second consecutive term, but the ruling must
still be confirmed by the full 15-member
court.
Martinez, linked to the main opposition
Liberals, pointed out that all six justices
who signed the ruling are members of the
governing Sandinista Party.
He said that the three Liberal magistrates
of the chamber were replaced by Sandinistas.
Two Liberal members of the chamber, Sergio
Cuarezma and Ivan Escobar, alleged that they
were not called in time to take part, while
the other Liberal justice, Damisis Sirias,
is out of the country.
Justice Francisco Rosales, who presides over
the tribunal’s Constitutional Chamber, said
late Tuesday that the Supreme Electoral
Council, or CSE, would be instructed to
certify Ortega’s candidacy in the 2011
general elections.
The ruling would also allow incumbent mayors
to seek re-election in Nicaragua’s 2012
municipal balloting.
Although initially, it was reported that the
ruling had to be confirmed by the full
15-member court, Deputy Chief Justice Rafael
Solis – a Sandinista – said Tuesday that
“the ruling is an unappealable judgment,
it’s been ruled upon.”
“What happened last night was an ambush,”
Chief Justice Martinez said, claiming that
the Constitutional Chamber’s Liberal members
were not informed in time to take part.
But Rosales claimed that he contacted all
the court members about 1 p.m. on Monday and
only the Sandinista magistrates arrived with
their substitutes, and he declared that the
ruling is unappealable.
Martinez insisted that the Sandinista
magistrates showed “complete and flagrant
disrespect for the Constitution, for the
laws and even for the ethics that every
individual should have for himself.”
Rosales said Tuesday that the ruling in
favor of the motion filed by Ortega was
“based on the principle of sovereignty,
which establishes that power belongs to the
people, something acknowledged by Article 21
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
of 1948.”
Article 147 of the Nicaraguan Constitution
bars re-election of a sitting president or
vice president. It also limits a president
to a total of two terms.
Ortega, who began his second presidential
term on Jan. 10, 2007, and is due to step
down in January 2011, has been unable to
obtain the 56 votes needed to allow a
constitutional reform in Congress.
In the face of that obstacle, Ortega decided
to pursue a judicial remedy by filing a
motion before the CSE, which in turn
referred the matter to the Supreme Court.
Ortega previously governed Nicaragua from
1979-1990, initially as leader of the
Sandinista movement that toppled U.S.-backed
dictator Anastasio Somoza and subsequently
as the country’s elected president. EFE
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