Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua plans to scrap elections – what that says about today’s autocrats

Since being elected for a second term as Nicaraguan president in 2006, Daniel Ortega – the former Sandinista freedom fighter-turned-authoritarian leader – has extended his term of office several times. But last week he announced a new strategy for holding on to power. He declared that there will no longer be elections in the Central American country. Making a speech to commemorate the anniversary of the 1979 revolution that toppled the Somoza dictatorship which had ruled Nicaragua since 1937,…