Constitutionalist Liberal Party

File:PLC flag.png

The PLC flag

The Constitutional Liberal Party (Spanish: Partido Liberal Constitucionalista, PLC) is the governing political party of Nicaragua. At the last legislative elections, held on 4 November 2001, the party won 53.2% of the popular vote and 47 out of 90 seats in the National Assembly. The same day, its candidate Enrique Bolaños Geyer won the presidential elections with 56.3% (Bolaños later, however, broke with the PLC to form the Alliance for the Republic (APRE)).

The PLC also supplied Bolaños's immediate predecessor, Arnoldo Alemán. The party left the Liberal International in 2005.

José Rizo Castellón was nominated as the Presidential candidate and José Antonio Alvarado was nominated as the vice-Presidential candidate for the November 2006 election.

The Constitutional Liberal Party is the political successor of the Liberal Party, a faction which has existed since Nicaragua became independent during the 1830s. After being defeated by the conservatives in a civil war in the 1850s, the Liberal Party returned to power in 1893 under President Jose Santos Zelaya, who lost power in 1909. Under pressure from American troops who had occupied Nicaragua, the liberals lost power the following year, and remained out of power until 1926 when, following another revolt, they forced the conservatives into a coalition government. Some factions of the Liberal Party, along with some factions of the Conservative Party, supported Anastasio Somoza Garcia, who gained power in the 1930s, defeating another liberal faction led by Augusto Sandino, who continued fighting after the 1926 coalition agreement. The liberals and conservatives were both marginalized by the Somoza family, who formed the Liberal Nationalist Party, and continued to be out of power when the Somozas were overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front in 1979.

PLC mural in Ocotal

The liberal party had by this time split into many groups, many of which supported the United Nicaraguan Opposition which successfully opposed the Sandinistas in the 1990 elections. By the late 1990s, led by Arnoldo Alemán, most of the liberal groups consolidated to form the Constitutional Liberal Party. Though still a strong force in Nicaragua, there have been many disputes within it since 2001. Eduardo Montealegre, another presidential candidate for the elections to be held in November, was a former member of the Constitutional Liberal Party.

External link

• Template:Es icon Constitutional Liberal Party official site