unicameral National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional (92 seats; 90 members elected by proportional representation and party lists to serve five-year terms; 1 seat for the previous president, 1 seat for the runner-up in previous presidential election)
elections: last held on 5 November 2006 (next to be held by November 2011)
election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
FSLN 38, PLC 25, ALN 23 (22 plus one for presidential candidate
Eduardo MONTEALEGRE, runner-up in the 2006 presidential election),
MRS 5, APRE 1 (outgoing President Enrique BOLANOS); note - as of 1
May 2009: seats by party - FSLN 38, PLC 20, BDN 17, ALN 6, MRS 3,
APRE 1, Independent 7
Judicial branch:
Supreme Court or Corte Suprema de Justicia (16 judges elected for five-year terms by the National Assembly)
Political parties and leaders:
Alliance for the Republic or APRE; Conservative Party or PC
[Alejandro BOLANOS Davis]; Independent Liberal Party or PLI
[Indalecio RODRIGUEZ]; Liberal Constitutionalist Party or PLC [Jorge
CASTILLO Quant]; Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance or ALN [Alejandro MEJIA
Ferreti]; Sandinista National Liberation Front or FSLN [Daniel
ORTEGA Saavedra]; Sandinista Renovation Movement or MRS [Enrique
SAENZ Navarrete]
Political pressure groups and leaders:
National Workers Front or FNT (a Sandinista umbrella group of eight
labor unions including: Farm Workers Association or ATC, Health
Workers Federation or FETASALUD, Heroes and Martyrs Confederation of
Professional Associations or CONAPRO, National Association of
Educators of Nicaragua or ANDEN, National Union of Employees or UNE,
National Union of Farmers and Ranchers or UNAG, Sandinista Workers
Central or CST, and Union of Journalists of Nicaragua or UPN);
Permanent Congress of Workers or CPT (an umbrella group of four
non-Sandinista labor unions including: Autonomous Nicaraguan Workers
Central or CTN-A, Confederation of Labor Unification or CUS,
Independent General Confederation of Labor or CGT-I, and Labor
Action and Unity Central or CAUS); Nicaraguan Workers' Central or
CTN (an independent labor union); Superior Council of Private
Enterprise or COSEP (a confederation of business groups)
International organization participation: