The 2008 National Assembly concluded this week in a continued state of paralysis after Sandinista lawmakers were unable to achieve a quorum Monday to discuss the mounting pile of pending legislation that will remain unattended until next year.

No Quorum: The National Assembly has been paralyzed without quorum since the Nov. 9 municipal elections.

Mario López | EFE

National Assembly President René Núñez, a Sandinista, attempted to convoke a legislative session Monday, which was considered illegal and boycotted by the opposition, preventing quorum. The Sandinistas, who were able to muster only 41 of the 47 lawmakers needed for quorum, eventually had to retire from the National Assembly unable to hold session.

Núñez criticized the absent opposition lawmakers for demonstrating an “irresponsible attitude” and a “permanent boycott” of the National Assembly. Núñez lamented that important bills and economic-stimulus initiatives, including reforms to the 2008 budget and approval of the 2009 budget, remain unfinished work at the end of the year.

Many of the “urgent bills” in National Assembly have been stuck there since September or longer, Núñez noted, while others, such as the Coastal Law, have been stuck there for more than a year.

President Daniel Ortega also tried unsuccessfully to urge the opposition lawmakers to get back to work.

“In these moments, we have a group of lawmakers who are refusing to session and refusing to work and comply with their function,” Ortega said during a speech last week. “This has led to a paralysis of the resources needed by the Nicaraguan people, especially the poor.”

The National Assembly has been paralyzed for more than a month, following the opposition's protest of the Nov. 9 municipal elections, which critics claim were robbed by the governing Sandinista Front. Since the elections, the opposition has been trying to introduce a bill to National Assembly to annul the vote and call for an electoral redo next year.

Núñez and the Sandinistas have tried to block that initiative by failing to meet with the rest of the National Assembly's directorate, where the four Liberal Party lawmakers were going to introduce the initiative and convoke the National Assembly to discuss it on the floor. Núñez, however, has tried to skip the directorate meeting and go right to congressional session without putting the annulment bill on the agenda. The opposition claims Núñez's attempt to convoke the National Assembly without first meeting with the director is illegal.

Opposition lawmaker Eduardo Montealegre, who claims he was robbed of victory in the Nov. 9 election for mayor of Managua, said that Liberal Party lawmakers will only attend a legislative session that is convoked legally by the directorate, and not Núñez acting unilaterally.

While the country ends the year in the midst of a worsening institutional crisis and unclear prospects for 2009, opposition leaders claim the biggest political loser from the governmental meltdown is Ortega.

Enrique Sáenz, lawmaker for the left-wing Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), claims that the disastrous municipal elections have had the exact opposite political effect that Ortega wanted.

While the administration had hoped that an authoritative win in the municipal elections would give it enough political capital to push forward quickly on its plans for constitutional reforms to allow for presidential reelection, instead, Sáenz said, the Sandinista government's momentum has come to a screeching halt. Now the Sandinistas' post-electoral claims to represent a majority seem like delusions of grandeur, according to the analyst.

“Now they are worse off than before,” Sáenz said. “Whatever little legitimacy they had before the elections has now been sunk.”