World - Tearing up the rules;Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega bans his foes

THOUGH he has been in office for only 18 months, the opinion polls show that Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s president, is deeply unpopular. But he seems to have found a way to deal with his critics. Mr Ortega, of the left-wing Sandinista movement, is insouciantly presiding over an attempt to rig his country’s democracy by excluding parties opposed to him.
For this, he can count on the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), the supposedly independent electoral authority over which he has great influence. In June it ruled that two smallish opposition parties, the Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS), on the moderate left, and the Conservative Party had not complied with some paperwork, and therefore did not have legal standing as parties. Both are appealing, but appear to have been ruled out of municipal elections due in November.
The CSE may have been applying the letter of the law, but its decision looks arbitrary: several other small parties whose registration had similar flaws remain on the ballot. The MRS in particular had a reasonable chance of attracting the support of the many disillusioned Sandinistas.
Earlier this year the CSE had also invoked technicalities to remove Eduardo Montealegre, a conservative banker who came second to Mr Ortega in the presidential election, from the leadership of his party, the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN). Mr Montealegre’s party split from the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), which is controlled by Arnoldo Alemán, a former president convicted of corruption. For several years Mr Alemán and Mr Ortega have colluded in an unholy alliance. While badmouthing each other in public, they have banded together to control bodies such as the CSE and the supreme court. This deal got Mr Alemán out of jail.
It was the Liberal split between Mr Alemán and Mr Montealegre that allowed Mr Ortega to win the presidency with just 38% of the vote. Mr Montealegre has now decided to return to the PLC. He wants to run for mayor of Managua, the capital, in November, and needs a party to do so. Opinion polls give him a narrow lead over the Sandinista candidate, a former professional boxer. But his chances may not be helped by his renewed link with a discredited party. Mr Ortega is also pushing for a legal investigation into Mr Montealegre’s involvement in a bank bail-out.
In the 1980s Mr Ortega presided over a revolutionary government. At the last election he campaigned as a moderate. In economic policy, he has largely governed as one. But his political manoeuvring has united a broad civic front against him in recent large demonstrations. He seems unperturbed. Banning opposition candidates has become a new fashion in parts of Latin America: in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez’s government has blocked the strongest contender for mayor of Caracas. It is a thoroughly undemocratic habit.