[6] President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front sought re-election, while five opposition candidates appeared on the ballot.

[17] On 3 August CxL vice-presidential candidate Berenice Quezada had been placed under house arrest and disqualified from running, charged with inciting violence, provocation and conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.

[27] Individuals arrested included farmers leader Medardo Mairena,[28] who had previously been convicted of the July 2018 terrorist attack on the Morrito police station which left four police and one civilian dead, journalist Miguel Mora, who was found guilty of inciting the arson attack on Radio Ya in May 2018, and has called for a "Panama-style" invasion of Nicaragua by the U.S.,[29] political scientist Félix Maradiaga,[30] economist Juan Sebastián Chamorro, media owner Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, who was accused of transferring $7m from her non-profit organisation to her personal bank account, and former Contra, Ambassador to the United States and now academic Arturo Cruz Jr.

[33] The day Chamorro was called in for questioning, the police also raided the news offices of her brother Carlos's media channel, Confidencial, confiscating equipment and arresting a cameraman.

[39] On 8 June the government arrested a third potential candidate, Félix Maradiaga, a leader of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB) opposition group.

[44][45] On 15 June the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States issued a statement saying it “unequivocally condemns the arrest, harassment and arbitrary restriction imposed on potential presidential candidates, political parties and independent media outlets" and called for “the immediate release of potential candidates and all political prisoners.”[46] A large majority of member states (26) endorsed the statement;[46] however, Mexico and Argentina did not sign onto the resolution.

[51] On 9 July law professor and Civic Alliance attorney María Asunción Moreno announced her intention to register as a pre-candidate with the CxL.

[55][56] Later on 24 July the government announced the investigation and then the arrest of ACxL pre-candidate Noel Vidaurre,[57][35] who had challenged Ortega in previous elections.

[13] On 3 August CxL vice-presidential candidate Berenice Quezada was placed under house arrest and barred from running on charges of "apology for crime and incitement to hatred" following campaign statements allegedly sympathizing with the 2018–2021 Nicaraguan protests.

"[56] On 6 August, following a complaint from Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PCL) board and its president María Haydee Osuna that CxL president Kitty Monterrey was a dual national, the Supreme Electoral Council cancelled the legal status of the CxL and instructed the relevant administrative body to revoke Monterrey's national identity card.

[63] The Organization of American States (OAS) appointed former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solís as head of the official Electoral Observation mission.

[63] On 19 October 2021 Minister of Foreign Affairs Denis Moncada [es] stated that the government would not invite the OAS mission, accusing them of being participants in the 2019 Bolivian political crisis.

In Costa Rica, thousands of Nicaraguan citizens marched through the main streets of the capital San José, considering them to be a "circus and an electoral fraud".

The march started at the Statue of León Cortés located in the center of the city and ended at the Plaza de la Democracia.

[67][68][69] In the United States, protests took place in Washington, D.C., chanting slogans such as "Democracy YES, Dictatorship NO" and carrying banners such as "Viva Nicaragua Libre".

The demonstrators went to protest in front of the Nicaraguan embassy and then headed towards the headquarters of the OAS to ask international organization not to recognize the election results.

[1] An organization called Urnas Abiertas (Open Ballot Boxes), with known opposition links, estimated that the turnout was much lower than the official results, at only 18.5%, according to an analysis by 1,450 poll-watchers at 563 voting centers across Nicaragua.