Nicaragua - 01/01/2024 - Local level

• The political parties or alliances must present candidates in all the electoral districts in which they participate. The lists they present for each constituency must necessarily have the total number of male and female candidates, with the exception of regional and municipal elections in which the registration of candidates will be required at least in eighty percent (80%) of the municipalities and also at least eighty percent (80%) of the total number of candidatures, in all cases without detriment to the obligation to comply with the principle of equity and gender alternation. The registration of citizens for more than one position in the same election will not be accepted. The political parties or alliances of parties that participate in the regional, municipal elections, of deputies and deputies of the national assembly and the Central American parliament, must present in their lists of candidates fifty percent (50%) of men and one fifty percent (50%) of women ordered equally and presented alternately. Officials elected through universal suffrage by closed lists proposed by political parties or alliance of political parties, who change their electoral option in the exercise of their office, contrary to the mandate of the voting people expressed at the polls, will lose their status as elected or elected, one or an alternate must assume the seat according to the procedure established in this Law in the event of definitive failure. In this case, the Supreme electoral council will proceed ex officio or at the request of the party against any public facts that have occurred and with manifest evidence, or at the request of the political party or alliance of political parties that feels aggrieved by the change of electoral option, which must be expressed by resolution of the party body duly empowered in accordance with the statutes of the corresponding party or alliance of parties. (Electoral law, article 68)
• When the Supreme electoral council, in accordance with the provisions of this Law, denies an application or rejects a candidate for not meeting the legal requirements, it will notify the political party or alliance of parties within three days following the resolution, to proceed to correct the defects or to replace them if appropriate. (Electoral law, article 70)
• Elections will be held with direct, personal and secret vote of mayor or mayoress, vice mayor or vice mayoress and councilors in each of the municipalities of the country. The terms of the mayors or mayoresses, vice mayors or vice mayoresses and councilors shall be five years. The candidates who obtain the relative majority in the counting of the votes in each municipality of the country will be elected mayor and vice mayor. The binomial of mayor or mayoress and vice mayor or vice mayoress must be formulated under the principle of equality and gender equity in the exercise of local power, being that one of them must be a woman and the other man, keeping the proportionality between both genders. Political parties and electoral alliances must present in their list of candidates for mayor or mayoress, vice mayor or vice mayoress and councilors, fifty percent (50%) of men and fifty percent (50%) of women. Before publishing the declaration of the elected officials, the application of everything considered in this Law will be ensured to guarantee gender equality. (Electoral law, article 146)
• The Supreme electoral council must ensure that the total list of elected mayors/mayoresses and vice mayors/mayoresses at the national level is made up of fifty percent (50%) women and fifty percent (50%) men. If this is not achieved as a direct result of the election, the Supreme electoral council will ask the political parties or alliance of political parties that have obtained the election of more than one formula at the national level to make the necessary adjustments in the list of their elected candidates, reversing the female-male composition of the formulas that are necessary until achieving a balance of fifty percent (50%) of women and fifty percent (50%) of men among the elected mayors. (Electoral law, article 147)
• Fifty percent (50%) of women and fifty percent (50%) of men must be ensured in the lists of the final declaration of those elected and elected in the elections of mayoresses, mayors, vice mayoresses, vice mayors, [female] deputies and [male] deputies before the national assembly, [female] deputies and [male] deputies to the Central American parliament, of members of the regional councils of the Caribbean coast and of the municipal councils, for which the total number of formulas or seats to be elected in each election at national or regional level where appropriate will be taken as the basis of calculation to make the necessary adjustments. In such case, the Supreme electoral council will require each of the political parties or alliance of political parties, to invert the man-woman, woman-man order in the necessary elected formulas to ensure the relationship of gender equality mandated by law. (Electoral law, article 153)
• When the total number of positions or seats to be elected added to the national level is an odd number, in the elections of mayoresses, mayors, vice mayoresses, vice mayors, [female] deputies and [male] deputies before the national assembly, [female] deputies and [male] deputies to the Central American parliament, the Supreme electoral council, prior to the declaration of elected and elected, and making use of the mechanism referred to in the previous article, must ensure that in the final list of the respective declaration of elected and elected, fifty percent (50%) plus one of the formulas or seats, the ownership corresponds to women. The same methodology will be applied previously to the declaration of those [male] elected and [female] elected in the elections of members of the regional councils of the autonomous regions of the Caribbean Coast at the regional level and of the municipal councils at the municipal level. (Electoral law, article 154)
• If any political party or alliance of political parties does not make or refuses to make the adjustments indicated to ensure the female-male ratio required by law in the final lists of the declaration of elected men and women, then it will be the obligation of the Supreme electoral council to proceed ex officio. (Electoral law, article 155)