Tortilla con Sal, November 6th 2012
The Consejo Supremo Electoral published the final results of Nicaragua's 2012 municipal elections yesterday evening. The site has an interactive table of results for both elections of Mayors/Vice-Mayors and for the elections of municipal councillors. This enables people to see, for example, that in the few places where the FSLN won a municipality over a divided opposition in the vote for Mayor, the municipal council will in fact have a majority of opposition councillors, faithfully reflecting the voting results.
Earlier provisional results gave the Partido Conservador a win in San Pedro de Lovago, but the final count adjudicated this municipality to the PLI.
The FSLN's total share of the vote nationally seems to be just under 70%, a definite advance on the results of the Presidential elections in 2011 and very much in line with the results predicted by a broad range of opinion polls prior to the elections. The turn out of 57% was very similar to or slightly better than the turn out in the 2008 municipal elections and higher than the turn out in numerous national electoral processes in Europe and North America.
The results confirm that Eduardo Montealegre's PLI political alliance, with around 21% of the national vote, has failed to completely displace Arnoldo Aleman's PLC as the main opposition party in Nicaragua.
The PLC, with about 8% of the total national vote, performed strongly in isolated municipalities, winning two municipalities and coming second in several more. But overall, nationally, as happened in the Presidential elections in 2011, the PLC is still clearly superseded by the the PLI Alliance which won around 13 municipalities out of the total of 153 and around 21% of the total national vote.
The Alianza Liberal Nicaragüense is the only other opposition party to win a municipality.
Yatama, in practice an ally of the FSLN, won three municipalities in Bilwi/Puerto Cabezas, Prinzapolka and Waspán.
These elections definitely mark a historic advance for the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional and will permit FSLN municipalities to develop the Citizen's Power model of direct democratic participation in decisions affecting the daily lives of the majority of people in the country.
The definitive results from the Consejo Supremo Electoral in Nicaragua's municipal elections give the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional 134 municipalities, the Alianza Partido Liberal Indepèndiente 13 municipalities, Yatama 3 municipalities, the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista 2 municipalities and the Alianza Liberal Nicaragüense 1 municipality.
The FSLN won all the municipalities in the departments of Carazo, Leon, Chinandega, Masaya, Managua, Estelí, Granada, Madriz and Rio San Juan plus muncipalities in the rest of the country's 15 departments and two Autonomous Regions for its total of 134 municipalities.
The FSLN won the capital Managua with over 80% of the vote.
If one looks at the municipalities that the FSLN won in which the combined opposition vote would have given the opposition a majority the total number of those is 14. So even if the opposition had gone into the elections united the FSLN would still have won 120 municipalities, eleven more than in 2008.
The muncipalities won by the PLI:
In Chontales, San Pedro de Lovago, Santo Domingo, Villa Sandino.
In Boaco, San Jose de los Remates.
In the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region, Mulukuku, Waslala
In the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region, El Tortuguero, La Cruz de Rio Grande
In Jinotega, San Jose de Bocay, Santa Maria de Pantasma
In Matagalpa, Rio Blanco
In Nueva Segovia, Ciudad Antigua, Wiwili
The indigenous peoples' party Yatama won in the Northern Atlantic Autonomous region, Bilwi/Puerto Cabezas, Prinzapolka, Waspán.
The PLC won in the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region, Bocana de Paiwas and Muelle de los Bueyes
The ALN won San Francisco de Cuapa in Chontales.
The elections were accompanied by foreign monitoring teams from : Consejo de Expertos Electorales de Latinoamérica (CEELA) , Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), Asociación De Organismos Electorales De Centroamérica Y Del Caribe (Protocolo de Tikal), Asociación De Organismos Electorales De América Del Sur (Protocolo de Quito), Unión Interamericana de Organismos Electorales (UNIORE) and México.
National teams accompanying the electoral process took part from : Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (PPDH), Centro de Derechos Humanos, Ciudadanos y Autonómicos (CEDEHCA), and the Consejo Nacional de Universidades (CNU).
All these groups endorsed the municipal elections as being free, fair and well organized.