NICARAGUANS will celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Sandinista revolution with a national holiday on Sunday as they look forward to next year’s presidential elections.

The country is set for a weekend of activities to mark the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s brutal US-backed dictatorship by the forces of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in July 1979.

Families bedecked their homes with the distinctive red and black flag of the Sandinistas along with the blue and white of the Nicaraguan flag, which opposition groups tried to co-opt during their failed coup attempt in 2018.

Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism spokesman Felix Sanchez said the celebrations would be focused on families and include a carnival of the sea.

The achievements of the Sandinista government are impressive, despite attempts to derail it by armed right-wing gangs that terrorised the country in April 2018.

Programmes to improve literacy rates have been accompanied by investment in health and housing.

Poverty has been reduced in Nicaragua and its economic growth rate is the highest in the region, despite the imposition of US sanctions and the putschists’ efforts to strangle the economy.

President Daniel Ortega commands huge popular support and is expected to win next year’s election by a comfortable margin.