Co-presidents of Nicaragua
The co-presidents of Nicaragua, officially known as the Presidency of the Republic of Nicaragua, are the dual head of state and government of Nicaragua. The office was first created in the Constitution of 1854. From 1825 until the Constitution of 1839, the head of state of Nicaragua was simply styled as Head of State, and from 1839 to 1854 as Supreme Director.
In 2025, the Constitution of Nicaragua was amended to allow the powers of the presidency to be exercised by two co-presidents rather than a single person. A male and female co-president are elected by universal suffrage to a six-year term. When the amendment was passed, incumbent president Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo were declared inaugural co-presidents, making Nicaragua the only country in the world currently ruled by a spousal diarchy. Ortega had previously served as president since 2007.
Constitutional basis
In 2009, the Supreme Court of Nicaragua ruled that the constitutional ban on immediate reelection was unenforceable. In 2014, the National Assembly amended the constitution to allow the President to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms.In 2025, the assembly extended the presidential term to six years and declared incumbent president Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, co-presidents. The revised constitution provides for the powers of the presidency to be exercised by a male and female co-president elected by universal suffrage. Candidates for election must have resided in Nicaragua for at least six years prior to the election, must hold only Nicaraguan nationality, and must not have been declared "traitors to the homeland". The qualifications effectively disqualified leading opposition candidates from standing for election, as they had been exiled and stripped of their citizenship in February 2023.