“A lot of people I know don’t leave their homes,” said another Nicaraguan from the city of Granada, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. As he walked through the city, the streets and polling stations he saw were empty, he added.

At a press conference alongside Murillo in the capital Managua on Sunday, Ortega called the voter turnout a “vote for peace.”

“We have the right, as Nicaraguans, to investigate terrorists and defend the peace,” he also said, apparently defending the dozens of arrests of government critics leading up to the elections. .

An empty field

At least a half-dozen likely presidential candidates were arrested ahead of the vote, paving the way for Ortega for another five years in office. Although five other presidential candidates were entered in the final ballot on Sunday, none are considered a serious challenger.

According to Nicaraguan law enforcement, dozens of other critics and opposition leaders have also been arrested and investigated for alleged national security concerns – measures that many of the international community described as political repression.

“A parody of election”

The Ortega government’s tactics to stifle competition have drawn condemnation from democratic governments and members of the Nicaraguan diaspora around the world.

During a demonstration in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, dozens of demonstrators dressed up as clowns to indicate that they were claiming that the elections in Nicaragua were a “circus”. “It’s fraud. I’m disguised as a clown because this vote is a joke,” a protester, who did not identify herself for fear of repercussions, told CNN in Spanish.

In Miami, Florida, protesters carried blue and white Nicaraguan flags and “no to voter fraud” signs in Ruben Dario Park, named after the Nicaraguan poet.

And in Madrid, Spain, protesters gathered outside the country’s Congress building carrying a large sign reading “Nicaragua: Justice and Freedom”, demanding that the results of the vote be rejected.

Regional governments have long expressed concern over the repression of the Ortega regime over the past year. Following a wave of arrests this summer, Mexico and Argentina recalled their ambassadors for consultations, citing “worrying legal actions by the Nicaraguan government”.

“The event set to take place on November 7 is an election mockery,” echoed Canadian representative Hugh Adsett.

The day before, on November 2, the European Union’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, had called Nicaragua’s election so “completely false” that it would not be worth sending independent observers.

“We are not going to send an election observation mission there because Mr. Ortega took care to jail all the political candidates who ran in these elections,” Borrell said, speaking in Lima, in Peru.

Ortega and Murillo’s hold on power

Ortega came to power as part of the Sandinista rebels who overthrew the Somoza dynasty in 1979 and fought the US-backed Contras in the 1980s. First elected in 1985, he has since demolished the boundaries of the Nicaraguan presidential term, allowing him to run for office again and again.

Over the years, the two have inexorably consolidated their power, appointing loyalists to the highest positions of government and exercising an increasingly tight grip on the social and political spheres of the country. The local press describes a climate of fear and intimidation.

“They fear losing their grip on power,” Julie Chung, acting deputy secretary of the US State Department’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said in June. “As such, this fear of democracy, I think, has helped trigger these kinds of actions, repressive actions, because they have no confidence in their own ability to be supported by the people.”

Pro-government armed groups arbitrarily detained hundreds of participants, attacked churches and universities where protesters were hiding, and reportedly prevented the wounded from accessing medical care.

At least 322 people were killed then, according to rights groups, with thousands injured and hundreds detained. At the time, UN human rights experts accused the government of human rights violations against protesters. Ortega said the UN report was “nothing more than an instrument of the policy of death, the policy of terror, the policy of lies, the policy of infamy.”

Anti-government protests were subsequently banned. Even waving the country’s flag in public – a key symbol of the 2018 protests – has been criminalized.

Today, civic participation seems unnecessary, a young woman told CNN on Sunday.

“Years ago, in elections, there were lines at the polls and people wanted to participate,” she said. Although she boycotted the vote, she stressed that others in Nicaragua are not even free to do so, with government employees being especially watched.

“My father works for the state and if he doesn’t vote he will be fired. It’s a way to force people to vote, it’s not voluntary,” she said.

Her only hope is to leave the country, she added. “I don’t see a future here. Unless Daniel Ortega and this woman die, nothing will change. There is no life here.”