and that caused some discontent among the people. So these has provoked many concerns and tensions over the election.

For another thing, opinion polls show the vote intention is narrow and contended between the ruling party and its candidate –from the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista- and the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional candidate. So due to the high mistrust between both parties the make claims to each other of the possibility of conducting some sort of fraud. This creates some tension in Nicaragua and uncertainty too apart from the outbreaks of verbal violence and discredits among the candidates that have affected the climate of the election and mainly when the likely winner of the presidency begins to rise.

Despite controversies between the political parties, the OAS observation mission and the Carter Center have expressed their reservations over the electoral council and put record management into question...

Well, these institutions have been conducting the same national electoral observation and expressed different concerns. For instance, one about the id cards to vote –the ‘cedula’ is the major document to vote. The latest information was that the Supreme Electoral Council had not handed ‘cedulas’ to over 300,000 citizens yet and as the voting is so narrow (there was a difference of 40,000 votes at that moment according to the polls). In other words, the losing party would say those that were not handed in were the ones of their voters. For another thing, the members of the electoral and national observation have spoken about the transmission of results as many tests had been made which showed many flaws in relation to the future preliminary results. Besides, emphasis has been made on the importance of revealing the information as soon as possible and that has created much tension.

Another concern relates to the Supreme Electoral Council and its members over the possibility they do not offer the necessary quorum to reveal results as soon as possible. This concern rises because two months ago there was a 45 day impasse where the Supreme Electoral Council and its members did not meet because some did not want to reach quorum so that no decision on a case they disagreed would not be made.

There are fears that on the election day one of the parties may refuse to reach quorum so that the opposition party cannot win, which would be serious for the already fragile economy we have in Nicaragua.

‘Vote intention is narrow and contended between the ruling party and its candidate –from the
Partido Liberal Constitucionalista’- and the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional candidate’

Is there any proposal to change the make-up of the electoral council of Nicaragua, clearly integrated by politicians and not impartial judges?

At this stage, proposals are unlikely to appear before the November 4 elections despite the leaders and candidates of the political parties have criticized the Supreme Electoral Council’s formation. And the curious aspect is those are their parties and in some way they were part of that decision!

However, they have openly committed themselves that after the elections they will overhaul the Electoral Council to give its credibility back. And the Supreme Court would control it as within that same constitutional reform they arranged that political parties would obtain positions in the State which has certainly affected the credibility toward their impartial work.

How would you describe Nicaragua in terms of electoral transparency compared to other countries in Latin America?

Nicaragua had been making a great efforts since 1984 in terms of electoral organization with a high participation and professionalism, transparency and management of the whole electoral structure thus contributing to democracy. People’s participation was channeled through the Asociación de Suscripción Popular de los Partidos Políticos (Association of the People’s Registration in Political Parties) .

However, the constitutional reforms of January 2000 that ruled the elections for mayor, deputy mayor and municipal councils that same year and now this general elections of November have marked an unfortunate setback for the electoral system, the political structure and democracy in Nicaragua we hope it is recovered after the elections this year. The previous elections –1984, 1990 and 1996, which are general- had an average turnout of 80% of the people while in the municipal elections of last year that turnout dropped to 42%, precisely because of people’s discontent with this issue.