Nicaragua Sandinista Parties Accused of Recruiting Candidates Out of Cemeteries

Forget the dead voting, in Nicaragua they run for office too

Recruiting votes in the cemetery is a classic trick used by corrupt regimes to fatten electoral victories with some help from beyond the crypt. In Nicaragua, however, several parties are now being accused of recruiting their candidates from among the dead.

Three minority parties accused of operating as "satellite parties" to the Sandinista Front are being denounced for allegedly resorting to identity theft and "grave robbery" to fill their candidate rosters. The Independent Liberal Party (PLI) alleges at least two of the candidates running on the ballot of the Conservative Party (PC) are dead and buried and claims the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) and the Alliance for the Republic (APRE) are stealing people's identities to run them as fake candidates in the November municipal elections.