UN rights chief condemns Nicaragua’s decision to abolish elections

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing AFP and Reuters, reported on July 22, 2026, that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk condemned what he described as worsening repression in Nicaragua after President Daniel Ortega said the country would not hold elections. Ortega, who has governed for nearly two decades alongside Vice President Rosario Murillo, made the announcement on Sunday, according to the report, in a move critics say would eliminate a path for electoral challenge to the couple’s rule.

The report said Nicaragua’s general elections had been expected in November, but constitutional changes approved about 18 months earlier extended the presidential term from five to six years, shifting the next vote to 2027. Turk warned that recent developments were further narrowing fundamental freedoms, civic activity and the rule of law. He said power was increasingly concentrated under the country’s “co-presidency,” while Ortega’s Sandinista party already controls parliament, municipalities and regional councils on the Caribbean coast.

Turk urged Nicaraguan authorities to restore civic space and allow people across political viewpoints to vote and seek office, in line with the country’s international human rights obligations. The UN statement also cited the recent revocation of several lawyers’ credentials, which it said lacked legal justification, and said at least 46 people remain arbitrarily detained for political reasons.

Al Jazeera also reported Turk’s concern about religious groups, including the unclear whereabouts of 80-year-old Bishop Abelardo Mata Guevara, detained on June 29. The developments follow Nicaragua’s 2018 protest crackdown, in which more than 300 people were killed according to UN figures, and after which Ortega and Murillo have tightened control over public life.