The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-07
DICTATORSHIP IN NICARAGUA NOW
 SEEMS AT END
Promises to Permit
 Selection of Successor By Ballot.

Managua, Nicaragua, April 7-The people of Nicaragua will be given the right to express their will for the se- lection of a president. That will be a remarkable state affairs for Nicaragua where for twenty years, dictatorship and revolution have interdicted and made such a condition impossible. As the Secretary of State expressed it in an official letter when he dismissed the Nicaraguan Minister from the United States in 1909: Tt is equally notorious that under the regime of President Zelaya, republican institu- tions have ceased to exist in Nica- ragua except in name, that public opinion and the press have been strangled and that prisons have been 1.-the price of every demonstration of patrio riotisn." President Diaz has just issued an announcement through the press, and says he will makeDit official by q proclamation in the Official Gazette, that 'it has been the basis of my pro gram of government to restore in Nicaragua all the republican prac- tices.'' To that end, he continues, the most important is the success of one term presidents in the Executive Power, selected by popular will. As the presidential election in Mic aragua occurs October 1 next, and as politics are warming and the parties , this announcement is most significant The present generation, (except the older people who were active before 1893), know nothing of a popular dis cussion of candidates for the presi-s dency, of free registration of voters, or of any expression of the popular will. Such things were not permitted under President ZeIaya from 1893 to 1910.
 The Provisional Government which gained force that year adopted new constitution for a republican form of government, providing that the presi- dential term should be four years and an incumbent could not be succeed himself, thus restoring the practice in Nicaragua for the quarter century preceding Zelaya. The first election was in December 1912, but it came so soon after the revolution of 1912 en- gagged in by General Mena and the ZeIaya Liberals, that the partisans of the latter party made no effort at the polls and the Conservatives won with out opposition. the acting President, Adolfo Diazs being elected for a full term.
 The President now declares that the one-term provision will be carried out, which means that he will retire. and states further that the~free expreS- sion of the popular will in the pri- maries or meetings will be guaranteed by the Government with the same care that have taken that the other guarantees which the constitution gives to the citizens shall be respect ed"
 He says that there is further guar anteed the free exercise of propagan- da and the right of free speech. in meetings provided that it be done with decorum and in lawful manner. He calls attention to his instructions to the Jefe Po1iticos (Governors) of the Departments last mont1l thhat all citizens who desired to register will be given further opportunity on two days in May.
 The Liberals, which is the party in opposition, are already taking advant- age of the Presidents declarations that free discussion will be permitted, by organizing clubs and calling meet ings The Conservatives are doing doing the same. So there is good prospect of a six months lively cam paign. Some of the Liberals seem g. little stunned by the announcement that free speech, will be permitted, so unusual is it. When it is remembered that most of the present high officials of the Government, whe are Conserv- atives, spent more or less time in pris- on or in exile for indu1ging in free speech in the regime of Zelaya the significant of President Diazs an- nouncement can be$appreciated- It marks a new epoch for Nicaragua.