The announcement means that the planned elections in November 2027 are canceled and underlines Ortega's ambition to extend his rule.
According to conflict monitor Acled, the announcement shows that the president and his circle "fear that the slightest political opening could create conditions for dissent to threaten their grip on power."
Ortega, together with his wife Rosario Murillo, has ruled the country alternately since 1979, but continuously since 2007.
Since coming to power, he has crushed the country's political opposition and rewritten the constitution. As recently as January last year, he and Rosario Murillo were given control of the entire state apparatus through a constitutional amendment.
