section_path: Constitutional basis
section_name: Constitutional basis
paragraph_text: Constitutional basis
  
  In 2009, the Supreme Court of Nicaragua ruled that the constitutional ban on immediate reelection was unenforceable. In 2014, the National Assembly amended the constitution to allow the President to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms.
  
  In 2025, the assembly extended the presidential term to six years and declared incumbent president Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, co-presidents. The revised constitution provides for the powers of the presidency to be exercised by a male and female co-president elected by universal suffrage. Candidates for election must have resided in Nicaragua for at least six years prior to the election, must hold only Nicaraguan nationality, and must not have been declared "traitors to the homeland" (Spanish: traidores a la patria). The qualifications effectively disqualified leading opposition candidates from standing for election, as they had been exiled and stripped of their citizenship in February 2023.