By Alessia Genoves
Contributor
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of El Salvador released the final scrutiny report of the presidential elections, which ratifies the victory of the current president Nayib Bukele, with 84.65% of the valid votes cast. This, amid questions from the opposition about the alleged unconstitutionality of a new Bukele term and observations from the Organization of American States (OAS) about irregularities in the electoral process.
In the final scrutiny report, the TSE reported that Bukele obtained 2,701,725 valid votes, equivalent to 84.65% of the total. While Nuevas Ideas obtained 3,22,645 votes (84.65%). The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) came in second place, with 204,067 votes (6.40%). It was followed by the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) with 177,881 votes (5.57%). The other contenders obtained less than 3% of the vote. In total, 3,191,615 valid votes were registered out of a total of 3,268,466 cast.
Popularity and accusations of unconstitutionality
According to the main public opinion polls prior to the elections, Bukele had broad citizen support to seek re-election. According to Cid Gallup, the president had a 94% approval rating. The Tresearch survey gave him 91.3% support. While the Institute of Public Opinion of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (IUDOP-UCA) revealed that Bukele had 60.9% citizen support. For its part, Nuevas Ideas, the ruling party that nominated Bukele’s candidacy, appeared with 27.6% voting intention.
Despite the large advantage, opposition parties such as VAMOS and Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) criticized Bukele’s candidacy for a new presidential term, arguing that it violates the Constitution of the Republic. Article 154 of the Magna Carta establishes that the presidential term is 5 years, with no possibility of immediate re-election. Therefore, they allege that Bukele cannot run consecutively for office.
The OAS warns of irregularities
On the other hand, the OAS Electoral Observation Mission noticed a series of irregularities during the Salvadoran electoral process. Among them, the TSE’s lack of control over the final scrutiny stands out, which in many cases has been left in the hands of party representatives.
They also point out that the number of watchers for each political force at the counting tables has not been respected, evidencing a greater number of representatives of Nuevas Ideas over the rest. Likewise, the OAS denounced the intimidating attitude of representatives of Nuevas Ideas against international observers. They even point out that the work of an observer who was witnessing the counting at a table was hindered.
The government has not yet given an official position regarding the OAS observations. But, it is valid to remember that the president announced the closure of bilateral cooperation between the country and the OAS starting in 2021. Bukele denounced the proposal of its head, Luis Almagro, for supporting the nomination of the former deputy and former mayor of San Salvador, Ernesto Muyshondt as representative of the country, because he has been brought to justice for participating in electoral fraud since 2014 and the alleged withholding of up to $5 million dollars from the salaries of the Mayor of San Salvador.
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