Nicaragua ruling party seeks to expand hold in local votes

By GABRIELA SELSER
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — It was an electoral campaign without rallies, demonstrations or even real opposition. Now Nicaragua’s governing party hopes that municipal elections held Sunday will give it near-total control of local governments. It already controlled 141 of Nicaragua’s 153 municipalities. President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front is approaching single-party status in Nicaragua. In the past two years, some opposition parties have been cancelled altogether and their candidates jailed. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has said that “the minimum conditions necessary” to hold free and fair elections don’t exist in the Central American nation.