Nicaragua's long-divided opposition movements are starting to show signs of union in defense of the country's institutional democracy, following a highly suspect ruling by Sandinista Supreme Court magistrates Monday to allow their leader, President Daniel Ortega, to seek re-election in 2011.

The ruling by the six Sandinista magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court was conducted behind the backs of the opposition Liberal party magistrates. Supreme Court President Manuel Martínez, of the Liberal party, described the move an “ambush” by the Sandinista magistrates and a growing number of Ortega's detractors are blasting it as an illegal assault on Nicaragua's constitutional democracy.

After a full day of meetings yesterday, representatives of all the opposition political parties in the National Assembly – who together make up a majority – issued a joint statement stressing they do not recognize the judges' ruling, nor Ortega's right to seek consecutive re-election, which is banned by the constitution.

Nicaragua's opposition includes the Liberal Constitutional Party, the Liberal Independent Party/Vamos con Eduardo Alliance, independent lawmakers and a party led by Ortega's former comrades turned opponents called the Sandinista Renovation Movement.

Together they condemned the magistrates' ruling as “a coup d'état by Orteguismo” and called for a series of coordinated moves to “avoid the consolidation of an Ortega dictatorship.”

Also involved in the meeting were civil society groups and business leaders.

The opposition leaders announced they will block the government's recent tax reform bill and budget cuts, and redefine a new opposition economic strategy in the legislature.

The Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) also came out Wednesday against the controversial ruling.

“We do not recognize the decision adopted in an illegal and illegitimate manner,” the business chamber said in its statement.

Constitutional experts are also expressing shock about Monday's ruling.

Legal analyst and former judge Sergio Garcia Quintero told The Nica Times that one would be “hard pressed to find a more corrupt judicial system in the world,” and compared the Supreme Court justices to the “seven plagues of Egypt.”

Ortega, meanwhile, went on live television for a nationally televised address Monday night and said that the Sandinista ruling is “non-appealable” and “written in stone.” He called his political opponents “residual garbage” who should be thrown in jail.

The Sandinista base, too, has reacted to the news with the same defensive triumphalism they displayed after last November's highly contentious municipal elections, in which the Sandinista Front was accused of stealing more than 30 mayor's seats.

The Sandinistas have taken to the streets of Managua to “permanently defend” Ortega's re-election efforts and prevent the “right wing” from protesting.

See this Friday's Nica Times for more on this story.