By Reuters

This article was published on 20 Jul 202620 Jul 2026.

Ortega has been in power since 2007 and has faced international criticism over his government's human rights record.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega informed his supporters that the country will no longer hold elections.

In power since 2007 following elections questioned by the international community, the 80-year-old Marxist framed the move as a way to block the opposition, which he asserted is controlled by the United States.

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“There won’t be ⁠⁠any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” he said during a speech on Sunday at an event commemorating the 1979 Sandinista revolution.

“The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again,” he added, according to the Reuters news agency.

Ortega has faced accusations of suppressing dissent to maintain his grip on power. The 2021 election was widely disputed following a government crackdown on critics and the detention of political opponents.

Last year, the presidential term was extended to six years and Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, was named as co-president.

The UN’s Human Rights Council has said the couple have built a repressive regime, accusing government officials of having key roles in “arbitrary detentions, torture, extrajudicial executions [and the] persecution of civil society and the media”.

Ortega was widely criticised when more than 300 people were killed in a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2018.

Since then, the government has stripped hundreds of Nicaraguans of their citizenship and forced others to flee the country in fear of being imprisoned.

Ortega previously served as president from 1985 to 1990, when he implemented leftist reforms in the wake of the overthrow of the United States-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.

He has since detained many of the Sandinista National Liberation Front revolutionaries who were formerly his comrades.

This announcement marks a further consolidation of power by Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who was named co-president last year. The UN Human Rights Council has accused the couple of building a repressive regime, citing arbitrary detentions and torture. With Ortega's health in question, observers will watch for any escalation in repression following this statement.