26 3. Eklan James Molina, proposed as a YATAMA candidate for the position of mayor in the municipality of Prinzapolka in the RAAS for the 2000 municipal elections The witness was selected a YATAMA candidate in February and March 2000. Candidates required the support of the community, represented by one thousand signatures with identity card numbers, and the “approval of the leaders of YATAMA.” The selection process was open. After his selection as a candidate, he visited the communities to “present his plan of action if he was elected mayor.” The communities offered him their support. During the 2000 campaign, he invested 500,000 cordobas for expenses of transport by land, water and air, rental of venues, and “a payroll for activists.” The candidates for mayors in the different municipalities got together in a workshop held in the “Bilwi Clinic” in Puerto Cabezas and, on that occasion, the Supreme Electoral Council indicated that YATAMA would not take part in the elections because it had not presented “its legal status in time” and had entered into an alliance with the Coastal People Party in one region, while in another it had its own list of candidates. On learning of the Supreme Electoral Council’s decision, YATAMA filed an application for amparo before the “regional delegation of the Puerto Cabezas Court of Appeal” and obtained a favorable ruling. YATAMA’s exclusion affected the witness, because he gave up his job and this caused problems within his family because “he was responsible for the household expenses.” The communities showed their support for YATAMA with “civic protests” before the Supreme Electoral Council. The Government of Nicaragua responded with Army and Police units. As a result of YATAMA’s exclusion from the elections there was an 85% abstention rate in the elections, and “polling stations at the municipal level were not opened.” The Electoral Act should be reformed and “autonomous elections,” conducted by the indigenous people according to their customs should be promoted. 4. Hazel Law Blanco, lawyer YATAMA participated twice in the autonomous regional elections of the Atlantic Coast, under the mechanisms of a “public subscription association”. In 2000, the National Assembly reformed the Electoral Act and YATAMA had to become a regional indigenous political party in order to participate in the elections. It had to submit “its charter and by-laws” written up in a public document, and establish “regional and territorial committees, and municipal committees”; this entailed “traveling expenses to the capital, to Bluefields, and to the other municipal capitals.” The transformation into a political party was imposed by the State and resulted in “the need for increased financial resources owing to the formal procedures that the law requires of political parties, such as presenting a list of candidates in 80% of the [districts].” In 2000, the YATAMA candidates were selected at “municipal assemblies of territorial leaders.” The Supreme Electoral Council adduced two reasons to exclude YATAMA from the 2000 municipal elections: that it had not registered its candidates