Nicaragua's Ortega announces end to all elections, extending 20-year rule

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announces the end of all future elections, cementing his nearly 20-year rule with wife and co-president Rosario Murillo. The move, condemned by the U.S. and U.N., follows years of authoritarian tactics, including jailing opponents before the 2021 election, a deadly 2018 crackdown on protests that killed hundreds, and the shuttering of over 5,000 civil society groups. Ortega's regime is compared to those in Venezuela, Russia, and China.

Ortega election cancellation announcement

• ▪Nicaragua's National Assembly, controlled by Ortega, announced a "work plan" to implement the president's directives to suspend elections
• ▪UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned the move, calling for the restoration of the rule of law
• ▪The announcement effectively canceled Nicaragua's next elections, which had been scheduled for November 2027
• ▪Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced on Sunday, July 20, 2026, that the country will no longer hold elections
• ▪The announcement was made during a speech marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution

Authoritarian crackdown tactics

• ▪Daniel Ortega has been in power continuously since 2007 and governs with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as "co-president."
• ▪Ahead of the 2021 election, Ortega's government jailed all opposition presidential candidates who could have potentially defeated him
• ▪At least 46 people are being held as political prisoners in Nicaragua, according to the Mechanism for Recognition of Political Prisoners group
• ▪A 2014 constitutional amendment approved by Nicaragua's government banned restrictions on presidential terms
• ▪In January 2025, Nicaragua's government-controlled Congress voted to extend the presidential term from five to six years
• ▪In July 2026, the Nicaraguan government stripped numerous lawyers of their licenses to practice in what UN experts called a "purge."
• ▪A government crackdown on mass protests in 2018 resulted in hundreds of deaths, with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights citing at least 355
• ▪Hundreds of political prisoners have been released to the U.S. and Guatemala, but many were stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship
• ▪Since 2018, the Ortega-Murillo government has shut down more than 5,000 organizations, many of them religious

Comparison to Venezuela

• ▪The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom described Venezuela and Nicaragua as "the most clearly authoritarian states in Latin America."
• ▪Nicolás Maduro, who led Venezuela until his removal by U.S. forces in January 2026, was a close ally of Daniel Ortega

Comparison to Russia

• ▪Comparisons are drawn between Daniel Ortega's governing tactics and those of Russia's Vladimir Putin

Comparison to Belarus

• ▪International bodies rejected the validity of Belarus's 2020 election and Nicaragua's 2021 election

Comparison to China

• ▪Like China's Xi Jinping, Daniel Ortega has heavily restricted non-governmental organizations (NGOs), universities, and religious institutions
• ▪Both Xi Jinping and Daniel Ortega have dismantled constitutional term limits to extend their rule