§ Mr. Deakinsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the criteria regarding the degree of electoral choice available in (a) Nicaragua and (b) El Salvador upon which Her Majesty's Government based their decisions on whether or not to send observers to oversee the recent elections in those countries.
§ Mr. RifkindWe expected voters in Nicaragua and El Salvador to be offered a genuine political choice in the elections and that the political parties in those countries should have had equal freedom to campaign. In El Salvador, both these criteria were met, but in Nicaragua, intimidation and physical harassment led the main opposition group to withdraw from the elections.