AMERICA/NICARAGUA - For the Bishops the November municipal elections are not free and fair

Monday, 16 July 2012

Managua (Agenzia Fides) - The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) will not invite the Nicaraguans to vote en masse in municipal elections to be held on November 4: this is what was said during a press conference held on July 14 by the Secretary of the Episcopal Conference, His Exc. Mgr. Silvio Baez, auxiliary Bishop of Managua. As stated by Mgr. Baez, the Nicaraguan Bishops are convinced that in Nicaragua there are no democratic conditions necessary for the public to choose freely and transparently mayors, deputy mayors and councilors of the 153 local governments across the country.
"The Episcopal Conference will not call to vote en masse, as it did in the presidential election in November 2011, but will not even ask citizens not to vote, but will leave to the conscience of each person the choice to vote or not in the November elections" Mgr. Baez added. For the Secretary of the Episcopal Conference, a non-transparent management of the institutions and the exercise of public duties on behalf of non-elected officials in accordance with procedures established by the Constitution, among other negative aspects, "are leading our society to a degradation of ethics and morality, and the country to a dead end."
"For me the big problem is at a moral level: a society that degrades itself morally is destined to be inhuman," complained the Bishop. In the note sent to Fides Agency it says that the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua will meet on 17 and 18 July to discuss and publish a pastoral letter on the official position of the Bishops regarding the upcoming municipal elections. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 16/7/2012)


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