I was on my way back from Managua after spending the day in Leon as an official election accompanier when I saw the White House statement calling the Nicaraguan elections a "sham."
On election day, I watched thousands of Nicaraguans entering polling stations in a steady stream. I saw an efficient process – often taking less than 10 minutes from the time a voter arrived at the voting center to the time they had cast their vote and had their thumb covered in indelible ink – a calm, orderly and respectful atmosphere. We saw elderly, people with disabilities, and entire families coming in together and proudly taking selfies with their inked thumbs up.
The White House, U.S. State Department and the Organization of American States had all released statements calling the elections a "pantomime," undemocratic" and "illegitimate" and U.S. President Joe Biden had already signed the RENACER Act - which will further sanction Nicaragua - into law before the Nicaraguan election authorities had even finalized the count and announced the official election results.
What do the results show? That even in the middle of a pandemic, with in-person voting, nearly two-thirds of eligible voters participated (65.26% of anyone aged 16 or older). Of those, 75.87% cast votes for the FSLN, the ruling Sandinista party. The main opposition party, Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) got 14.33% and four other opposition parties got 3% or less.
Although I am tempted to debunk the U.S. response, others have done so far better than I could (in-depth here, shorter article here).
More importantly, I want to emphasize that anything Joe Biden or Anthony Blinken or Luis Almagro say does not, and cannot matter. They are not Nicaraguan. They do not represent Nicaragua.
Nicaragua is a sovereign country, and the Nicaraguan people have spoken. What have they said?
"The importance of today's elections is that we are voting for peace." - Voter, Leon.
"It is a great privilege to vote; elections are an expression of Nicaragua's sovereignty.” - Voter, Chinandega.
"Although we are sick in health and poor, we are here exercising our right to vote as citizens." -Voter, Chinandega.
“There are members of different political parties here, we are all respecting one another and participating in the electoral process. We want to see what the people think. If a majority of people come out to vote—60 or 70 percent—then the election results will tell us the people support this government. But if fewer than half of the electorate turns out to vote, that will mean that people felt they did not have a real choice in this election" - poll watcher with opposition party PLI, Leon.
"Nicaragua is not perfect. Nicaragua does not have to prove itself worthy. We don't have to earn the right to get the yoke of the United States off of us. Which means we don't have to earn the right not to be bullied, not to be subject to illegal sanctions, and not to be subject to coercion. That is our right. We have the right to experiment, we have the right to chose our development priorities, we have the right to hold our sovereign elections. Those are rights that we have as Nicaraguans." - Sofia Clark, Miguel d'Escoto Study Center, UNAN Managua.
The Nicaraguan people have spoken. The world needs to listen.