Nicaragua operates nominally as a presidential republic in which the executive serves as both head of state and head of government, but since 2025 it has functioned as a formal co-presidency shared by Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, and as a de jure dictatorship since July 2026, when Ortega announced the country would no longer hold elections.
Executive power is exercised by the co-presidency, which, since the 2025 constitutional reforms, formally coordinates the legislative, judicial, and electoral branches, as well as the national police. Legislative power is nominally vested in both the government and the National Assembly, though the assembly operates under executive coordination and has unanimously approved successive reforms expanding presidential authority. The judiciary is likewise subordinated to the presidency under these reforms.
Nicaragua is consistently ranked as one of the least democratic countries in Latin America, with significant human rights violations. Since Ortega's return to presidential office in 2007, Nicaragua has experienced democratic backsliding, as Ortega has centralized power and repressed the political opposition. Scholars describe Nicaragua as somewhere between a competitive authoritarian regime and a full authoritarian regime. In July 2026, Ortega announced that elections would be abolished.
The dominant political party in Nicaragua, FSLN, is firmly controlled by Ortega. Despite his left-wing revolutionary rhetoric, Ortega has allied with the business class and allowed what Thaler and Mosinger characterize as crony capitalism to flourish.
Constitution
In 1984, the electoral system was established in Nicaragua. The state completed its transition to an electoral democracy in 1990. In 1995, the executive and legislative branches negotiated a reform of the 1987 Sandinista constitution which gave extensive new powers and independence to the National Assembly, including permitting the Assembly to override a presidential veto with a simple majority vote and eliminating the president's ability to pocket veto a bill. Members of the unicameral National Assembly were elected to concurrent five-year terms. The constitution guarantees a comprehensive range of rights related to association and assembly. These rights were upheld for three terms after the transition to democracy in 1990, but in 2007, with Ortega's ascension to the Presidency, these rights were limited.
In January 2000, two opposing political leaders, Arnoldo Alemán of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party and Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, came together to formally establish "El Pacto", an amendment to the Nicaraguan constitution. This agreement filled seats within government with officials from each party in an attempt to champion political stabilization and make governmental institutions more streamlined. However, this restricted opposition parties' ability to enter politics and limited political participation. The amendment also granted the President immunity from prosecution unless there was a vote in the National Assembly that achieved over two-thirds of the vote to remove it. Additionally, it states that after an election, there are reserved seats for both the former President and Vice President in the National Assembly. Finally, this also changed the requirements to become President by reducing the vote percentage needed to avoid a run-off election to forty percent. It also allowed a candidate to win with thirty-five percent of the vote if they achieved at least five percent more than the runner-up.
In January 2014, the National Assembly approved changes to the constitution, removing presidential term limits. This allowed current President Daniel Ortega to run for a third successive term. The reform scraps the previous amendment that a candidate must achieve thirty-five percent of the vote. Additionally, it allows for the appointment of active duty policy and military officials to government offices that were previously held by civilians. By expanding Presidential powers, Ortega was no longer required to appear before the National Assembly to deliver reports, and this allowed him to issue executive orders with greater autonomy. Moreover, these reforms formalized the Councils of Citizen Power – a system of neighborhood committees that served as bodies of participatory democracy. However, because they are required to support presidential plans, the CPCs have become subject to partisan control mechanisms.
In February 2023, Article 21 of the National Assembly amended the constitution to allow the government to remove the citizenship of anyone categorized as a traitor. This resulted in political prisoners being exiled. In 2024, the National Assembly passed several amendments legalizing the practice of the government seizing the property and assets of political opponents. The National Assembly gave the regime access to remittances and the ability to seize any electronic transfers considered suspicious through the amendment of the Financial Analysis Unit Law in September 2024.
In 2025, Nicaragua's constitution underwent significant reforms that formally established the position of "co-president" for Rosario Murillo, elevated the Sandinista flag as a national symbol, and legitimized the "Volunteer Police" as an auxiliary body composed of institutionalized paramilitary groups.
Executive branch
The president and the vice president are elected for a single five-year term. With the reform of the constitution in 2014 the ban on re-election of the president has been removed. The president appoints the Council of Ministers.
Daniel Ortega previously led Nicaragua through revolution and civil war, but was voted out in 1990. He was then elected as a left-wing leader in the 2006 elections. By returning to authoritarian methods, he has remained in power. In 2025, lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment elevating Ortega's wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, to the position of co-president.
The 2014 constitutional reforms re-established a direct relationship between the executive, military, and the police that would bypass civilian ministers and allow them to occupy bureaucratic positions for "national security reasons." As a result, the military is now in charge of intelligence and security. Through a vast surveillance network controlled by Co-Presidents Ortega and Murillo, the Nicaraguan Telecommunications and Postal Institute (TELCOR) has actively collaborated with this state police apparatus to host "troll farms" that threatened Nicaraguans.
Religious influence on the Executive Branch
For centuries, both the Protestant and Catholic Churches played significant roles in Nicaraguan politics. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, 91.5% of Nicaraguans identify as Christian. Of the Christian faith, 71.1% identify as Catholics and 24.8% identify as Protestants. President Daniel Ortega used the Catholic church to achieve political success many times throughout his career. The most glaring example of this was Ortega's success in the 2007 election. Ortega, throughout his campaign, "publicly begged forgiveness from... the Catholic Church for persecuting them in the 1980s." He repeatedly referenced his faith and God in his speeches as he publicly presented himself as a devout Catholic and a 'new man.' Ortega further gained the favor of the Catholic Church by abolishing a woman's right to therapeutic abortion. The Catholic Church supported Ortega because they believed that once in office, he would continue to maintain the church's influence in public policy. Ortega played similarly into the good graces of the biggest Protestant sect in Nicaragua, the Pentecostals, through apologizing for his party's persecution of the group during the 1980s and pushing policy that aligned with their socially conservative views.
Beginning in 2018, the Nicaraguan government initiated measures affecting influential religious groups, including the Catholic Church and the Pentecostals, following public criticism from their leaders regarding government actions. This was the first time in 15 years that Ortega targeted religious organizations. Ortega has since shut down Catholic television shows and radio channels and arrested top leaders. In March of 2022, Ortega expelled the Vatican's envoy to Nicaragua, followed by the expulsion of 18 nuns from the missionary order founded by Mother Theresa in July of 2022. A month following, Ortega arrested Bishop Alvarez, a senior clergyman, accusing him of having supported the 2018 government protests. Bishop Alvarez refused expulsion to the United States, and was consequently sentenced to over 26 years in prison and stripped of his nationality.
Moreover, other religious organizations, like NGOs, were shut down by the Ortega regime. NGOs of this kind were subject to thorough financial reporting requirements and were penalized through arrests, seizures of property, and even imprisonment.
Legislative branch
The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) consists of 90 deputies elected from party lists drawn at the department and national level, plus the outgoing president and the runner-up in the presidential race, for a total of 92. Members are directly elected by a popular vote on a proportional representation basis from party lists. In the 2011 elections, the Sandinista National Liberation Front won 63 seats (securing a majority), the Independent Liberal Party won 27 seats, and the Constitutionalist Liberal Party won 2 seats. This includes seats given to outgoing Vice President Jaime Morales Carazo and presidential runner-up Fabio Gadea Mantilla.
In 2011, the outgoing Vice President Jaime Morales Carazo's seat would usually have gone to the outgoing president. However, after the Constitution was modified to remove term limits, Danial Ortega was re-elected. After the passage of the Law in Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence in 2020, the government arrested opposition candidates prior to the 2021 legislative elections. The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) annulled the legal status of rival parties.
Judicial branch The Supreme Court of Justice supervises the functioning of the still largely ineffective and overburdened judicial system. As part of the 1995 constitutional reforms, the independence of the Supreme Court was strengthened by increasing the number of magistrates from 9 to 12. In 2000, the number of Supreme Court Justices was increased to 16. Supreme Court justices are nominated by the political parties and elected to 7-year terms by the National Assembly. Justices are also responsible for appointing judges to the lower courts.
However, Nicaragua currently does not have an independent judiciary because judges are nominated by the executive branch. In 2021, the judiciary ended the legal status of opposition parties and began ordering the arrests of opposition members in "sham trials" where defendants were convicted of undermining judicial integrity. In 2023, then Vice President Murillo dismissed at least 900 judges and officials. In July 2024, 50 new judges with no formal judicial training were appointed on partisan grounds. In January and May 2024, judicial independence was further weakened through the lowering of the Judicial budget when the National Assembly approved reforms to the Judicial Career Law and Organic Law of the Judiciary.
Additionally, Nicaragua has faced rampant due process violations since the 2018 protests. Police conduct politically motivated arrests, and authorities often act without warrants. Political prisoners face severe abuses, including psychological and physical torture, sexual violence, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and forced confessions.
Political parties and elections
Parties The ruling party is the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), led by President Daniel Ortega.