Nicaragua’s Ortega says there will be no more elections

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega says his country will no longer hold elections, declaring that the opposition will not be allowed to take power through voting.

Ortega made the announcement during a speech Sunday in Managua marking the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution.

“They would love to win elections to make money off the schools. But they can forget it,” Ortega said. “There will be no more elections here, so they cannot use them to seize the government, seize power.”

Ortega, an 80-year-old former guerrilla who has governed Nicaragua since 2007, said the Sandinista-controlled National Assembly will work to approve laws creating “a wall, a blockade” against people he described as coup plotters and traitors.

“No matter how much money the Yankees give them, they will not succeed,” Ortega added.

During the same speech, Ortega also condemned the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas in January.

Nicaragua was scheduled to hold general elections in November 2026, but constitutional amendments that took effect in early 2025 extended the presidential term to six years, according to CNN. Under those changes, the next election was expected in November 2027.

The amendments have been criticized by the United Nations, the Organization of American States and Nicaragua’s opposition.

“When a communist dictator knows the people would vote him out, he takes away their vote. Repression, fear, and force become the only way to stay in power,” Republican U.S. Representative María Elvira Salazar of Florida said in a statement. “The Ortega-Murillo regime has declared war on the Nicaraguan people’s right to choose their own future.

“The United States must stand unequivocally with the people of Nicaragua, increase the pressure on this despicable regime, and ensure that those responsible for its crimes are held accountable,” Salazar added. “After Cuba, Nicaragua is next.”