817.00/2806
The Judge Advocate General, War Department (Crowder) to the Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs, Department of State (Rowe)
My Dear Doctor Rowe: From the hasty examination I have given the attached Electoral Code of Nicaragua,2 it seems to me to be almost totally lacking in the usual safeguards.
[Page 294]So far as I can determine from this hasty examination, the registration is in the hands of Boards of Directors, elected by popular vote (Articles 9 and 26) and are therefore partisan bodies, (no minority representation thereon.)
I can find no appeal from the decisions of this partisan Board, (Article 16). So far as my cursory examination extends these partisan boards call the election, (Article 21), conduct it, (Article 28, 2nd, 8th and 10th) and I can discover no recourse from their decisions except in the final count in the case of Senators and Deputies, by the “Chief Civil Magistrate, in company with the Mayor” (Article 55).
I infer this law was enacted in 1913, since which there has been no revision. Frankly, I can not trace the Electoral Administration from the registration down to the announcement of the result with any degree of satisfaction.
- Not printed.↩