Sandinistas complete their political domination of Nicaragua

The Sandinista National Liberation Front completed its political domination of Nicaragua on Monday as electoral officials said it had won control of all the country’s 153 municipalities in elections that critics called unfair.

Coming into Sunday’s elections, the party of President Daniel Ortega already controlled 141 of Nicaragua’s municipalities. But having outlawed the country’s main opposition parties and jailed dozens of opposition figures, the field was clear for the Sandinistas’ sweep. They appeared to achieve de facto single-party status, wresting control of the last 12 municipalities that had been in the hands of other parties, though those groups were considered collaborationist by much of the exiled opposition. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed concern Friday that “the minimum con…