29 Electoral Act does not state that, when one of the parties to an alliance has been disqualified, the other cannot participate with its own candidates. YATAMA filed an application for administrative amparo that was admitted by the RAAN Court of Appeal, which ordered the Supreme Electoral Council to restore matters to their situation before its resolution of August 15, 2000, excluding YATAMA from the elections of November that year. The Supreme Electoral Council informed the RAAN Court of Appeal, that the Supreme Electoral Council had exclusive jurisdiction in electoral matters. The Supreme Court of Justice decided that the application for amparo could not be admitted. YATAMA insisted before the Supreme Electoral Council that the latter should give a positive response regarding its participation. The Council maintained its decision not to authorize YATAMA’s participation. There was an 80% abstention rate in the municipal elections in the RAAN, which meant that the authorities were lawfully elected, but lack legitimacy, because they do not represent the people, particularly the indigenous people. b) Proposed by the State 3. Mauricio Carrión Matamoros, lawyer He referred to the supremacy of the Constitution over the electoral laws. The principle of hierarchy prevents a norm of an inferior category from contradicting the Constitution, and the principle of jurisdiction establishes that, when there are two norms of equal rank, the one that regulates the “matter at issue” will prevail. The Electoral Act is a constitutional law, because the Nicaraguan Political Charter establishes that it had to be adopted with the vote of 60% of the deputies of the Assembly. From the provisions of Articles 140, 141, 191 and 195 of the Constitution, it can be inferred that the National Assembly is the “only power with competence to adopt reforms to the Electoral Act.” 4. Lydia de Jesús Chamorro Zamora, lawyer She referred to the supremacy of the Nicaraguan Constitution and to its defense mechanisms, established in Articles 182 to 195. The Nicaragua legal system contains two types of laws: constitutional laws and ordinary laws. Constitutional laws regulate electoral matters, amparo and states of emergency, and ordinary laws deal with other issues. The Constitution establishes increased requirements to approve constitutional laws, while ordinary laws require only a simple majority. The same special increased majority applies in the case of reforms to the Constitution. In Nicaragua, the Electoral Act is of a constitutional nature. It is below the Constitution, but above ordinary laws. The Constitution establishes that the application of the Electoral Act “is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Electoral Council.” It is not even possible to apply for amparo before the