Nicaraguan president picks wife as running mate

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega wanted to select a tried and trusted running mate for his reelection campaign — so he picked his wife. The leftist leader is a strong favorite for a consecutive third term this November, and he described the selection of wife Rosario Murillo as proof of the equality of men and women in his country, Reuters reports.

"We don't doubt that [the vice presidential candidate] had to be a woman, and who better than the partner who has already been tested with work and proved to be very efficient and disciplined?" said Ortega.

Murillo has already worked to re-brand the image of her husband, a former guerrilla leader, by cutting military imagery in favor of hot pink, The Guardian reports:

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But while Ortega claimed that his choice shows that women can participate "shoulder to shoulder" with men, others accuse the leader of nepotism, with former congressman Eliseo Núñez of the opposing liberal party branding the choice "absolutist, totalitarian, and without respect for the law."