Bukele wins municipal elections, last link of power in El Salvador

The re-elected president of The Savior, Nayib Bukelewhich also controls Congress, gained the last link of power by obtaining 43 of the 44 municipal councils with allies, in the elections held this Sunday, with low voter turnout.

In the contest, the official New ideas and “the parties that support our project: 43 out of 44”, he assured. Bukele on social network X.

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As with the February 4 general elections, Bukele claimed victory against Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) will decide on the result of these votes.

He TSE began presenting preliminary data from the race on Sunday night.

New ideas will govern most of the 14 departmental capitals, including the capital San Salvador, where the mayor Mario Durán40 years old, was re-elected.

“Thank you to the Salvadoran people for continuing to give me the opportunity to serve them. We accept with humility this victory“, stated Durán in X.

“The elections took place completely normally, without difficulties, in an atmosphere of peace”declared the president of the TSE, Dora Esmeralda Martínez, moments before the voting centers closed.

6.2 million voters were called for the dispute, but it was considered a mere “Procedure”after the landslide victory of Bukele in the general elections of February 4, in which his party New ideas He also won 54 of the 60 seats in the Congress.

TO KNOW MORE: How Milei and Bukele became references for Trump and the more conservative right in the USA.

smart people

For Bukele“the people are wise” and some of the new mayors belong to parties that have always been there to support “all the changes” that the country needed, since before he won the presidency in 2019.

“In The Savior We live in a democracy and the people’s decisions are respected. It is clear that in many municipalities people voted for mayors who are not from the New ideas; “This is the vote of punishment for the terrible efforts some of them have made,” the president assured.

An hour before closing, Bukele He went to vote with his wife Gabriela Rodríguez at the polls installed on Avenida Olímpica, in San Salvadorwhere those present sang “Long live Najib”.

With 90% of the seats in Congress won, Bukele It has enough votes to easily approve any bill, elect judges of the Federal Supreme Court and the attorney general and maintain the emergency regime with which it has been fighting gangs for two years.

Benefited from his crusade against gangs, Bukele He was re-elected with a resounding 84.65% of the votes, according to the official count.

Its high popularity is a result of the fight against crime, which accumulated more than 75 thousand detainees and returned peace to the country’s streets.

Although his crusade against gangs is questioned by humanitarian organizations, he favored his party New ideas In these elections, in which 20 deputies are also elected to the Central American Parliament.

Results this Sunday “they will finish confirming the concentration of power” in Bukelewhich “would imply a greater weakening of the opposition” on the left and right, predicts the director of public opinion studies at the Francisco Gavidia University (UFG), Oscar Picardo.

In June 2023, the Congress It reduced municipalities from 262 to 44, a reform that would benefit the ruling party.

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Little involvement

“So far there has been a little low participation”The head of the Organization of American States’ electoral observation mission (OAS), Isabel de Saint Maloin your first evaluation of the process.

The absence of voters is due “in the first place to the mismanagement of the last elections” by the president and deputies, in February, which were full of irregularities, considered the doctor. Kevin Cuellar42 years old, after voting San Salvador.

According to data from Supreme Electoral Courtparticipation in the last two municipal and legislative elections was 53.39% in 2021 and 53.29% in 2018.

READ TOO: El Salvador: Electoral Court rejects petition to annul legislative elections

“Centralizing approach”

The campaign focused “in the presidential figure [de Bukele]which is what generates the attraction of voters”highlighted to AFP the director of the NGO Social Initiative for Democracy, Ramon Villalta.

With the new distribution of municipalities, “the tendency is to further strengthen a centralized approach, to reduce municipal autonomy, make municipalities more dependent” of the central government, summarizes the analyst.

Villalta also recalled that in the last four years the municipalities “were affected”Due to the decrease in transfers of funds from the central government, which began to control budgets for local works.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.