Elections

On Sunday November 9th, Nicaraguans headed to the polls for the mayoral elections. ("mayoral" is the literal translation, I believe "provincial" would be the best political translation, for Canadians). The lead up to these elections has been quite interesting, for a non-Nicaraguan like me. The passion that Nicaraguans have for politics and elections is amazing. At least 2 months before the actual election, there were political billboards all over the city. Houses and lampposts were painted to reflect ,the preferred political party. Frequent rallies would pop up, groups of supporters driving around the city, waving flags, honking horns and blocking traffic at any day or time of the week.

There are two main political parties in Nicaragua: the FSLN(the Sandanista party, currently the federal ruling party, their idols are Che Guevara and Sandino) and the PLN (the Liberal party, but Nicaragua's Liberals are more similar to Canada's Conservatives.
The Wednesday before the election it was announced that all offices would be closed on Friday and Saturday (most Nicaraguans work Saturdays as well). Then on Thursday, around 3 p.m. it was announced that the holidays were canceled and it would be business as usual the next day. I can't seem to understand how the government was able to relay this information on such short notice - and the fact that everyone seemed to just go along with it.

After 2 months of rallying and propaganda, a 72 hours "quiet period" was enforced. No public political activity was allowed for 2 days before the elections. The sale and consumption of alcohol was banned on Saturday and Sunday. Then the election happened. And the rallying and demonstrations resumed. In major cities, it took a few days for an official winner to be announced. And even if the winner was announced, the losing party would inevitably protest it and claim fraud. This morning in the paper there was an insert from the PLN candidate for Managua. This insert listed all the votes calculated in every polling station in Managua.

Throughout the week there have been groups of Nicaraguans gathering in various rotundas, wearing masks, and armed with air guns and rocks. My landlord didn't go to her class on Thursday night because she "didn't want to get hit in the head with a rock". It's sounding like things are starting to calm down a bit - but it's been quite a hectic week. And these aren't even the presidential elections.