As the partial results highlighted, President Nayib Bukele’s party, 39, will have a majority in El Salvador’s unicameral legislature.
According to an announcement made Tuesday by the country’s electoral court (2), Nuevas Ideas, new to house those aligned with the populist right-wing policy of the mandate, will have 56 deputies out of a total of 84.
Along with at least five other parliamentarians from aligned parties, Bukele will have a majority in the House – and will be able to propose constitutional amendments, in addition to appointing Supreme Court judges and the country’s attorney general.
Bukele, who has a popularity of 97%, has centralized power since his election in 2019. With good results in the fight against violence, the president however makes advances against the independent press and is accused of corruption and nepotism, favoring family members in public office.
Independent newspapers which publicized these abuses have been persecuted or threatened. The El Faro website, the country’s largest, is being sued for publicly denouncing government nepotism and irregular actions in enforcing quarantine measures.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, she has been indicted by international organizations such as Human Rights Watch over abuse in imposing quarantines and lockdowns to silence opponents. In addition, isolation and quarantine spaces for those arriving from abroad have been deemed inappropriate by human rights defenders.
In the election which took place last Sunday (28th), the country’s traditional parties performed poorly. The right-wing Arena (Republican National Alliance) won 14 seats in parliament, while the left-wing FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) held just five.
Since the country’s democratization after the civil war in 1992, a Salvadoran president has never managed to accumulate so much power.
The opposition has filed for an investigation against Bukele for campaigning on election day itself, through statements and social media, which goes against the country’s electoral law .