SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) – El Salvadorans voted in presidential and legislative elections Sunday, with many expressing a willingness to give up some elements of democracy if it means stopping gang violence.
As approval ratings skyrocketed and there was virtually no competition, Nayib Bukele will almost certainly seek a second five-year term As president. After the vote, he argued with reporters, claiming the election result would be a “referendum” on the government.
Polling stations closed at 5 p.m., but people still in line were able to vote. Judging from previous elections, some preliminary results were expected late Sunday.
El Salvador's constitution prohibits reelection. Despite this, about eight in 10 voters support Mr. Bukele, according to a January poll by the University of Central America. This is despite Mr Bukele taking steps throughout his first term to undermine the country's system of checks and balances, lawyers and commentators say.
After his party won the 2021 parliamentary electionsnewly elected parliament purged the country's constitutional court, replaces judges with advocates. They later ruled that Bukele could run for a second term despite the constitutional ban on re-election.
Since the crackdown on gangs began in March 2022, Bukele's government has arrested more than 76,000 people. The mass arrests have been criticized for a lack of due process, but Salvadorans have reclaimed neighborhoods long dominated by gangs.
Jose Dionisio Serrano, 60, joined the line at 6 a.m. Sunday when voters began waiting outside a school in the once-gang-controlled district of Zacamil in Mexicanos, just north of San Salvador. I was proud to be at the front. The soccer teacher said he plans to vote for Bukele and his New Idea party.
“We need to continue to change and transform,” Serrano said. “To be honest, we have lived through a very difficult time in our lives. As a private citizen, I have been through times of war and situations with gangs. We have an opportunity, and we hope that future generations will live in a better world.”
Historically, Mexicanos have been split between two gangs for most of Serrano's life, and he had to go on the run for several years after being shot and having his life threatened by gang members. Asked about his concerns that Mr. Bukele was seeking re-election despite the constitutional prohibition, he said, “What the people want is different.” I scoffed.
El Salvador's traditional parties of the left and right, which created the vacuum that Bukele first filled in 2019, remain in disarray. The conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which alternately ruled for nearly 30 years, have been completely discredited by their own corruption and incompetence. Voter turnout for their presidential candidates this year was in the low single digits.
“As a political structure, there is a disconnect between the people and the political parties,'' said João Picardo, a researcher at Francisco Gavidia University. Salvadorans said they “felt a greater affinity with the president's personality.”
Bukele, who calls himself “the world's coolest dictator,” achieved fame by: his brutal crackdown on gangs;more than 1% of the country's population has been arrested.
On Sunday afternoon, Bukele wore a blue golf shirt and white baseball cap as he walked through the crowd to vote.
As REM's 1987 hit song “It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” blared from the speakers, Bukele and his wife smiled as they dropped their ballots into the box. Bukele has a habit of trolling his critics.
Speaking at a press conference shortly after the vote, Bukele said it was important to elect a legislative assembly that would continue approving the state of emergency that gave him extraordinary powers to fight gangs.
Bukele said the vote could be seen as a “referendum” on what the government had done.
“We're not going to replace democracy because El Salvador didn't have democracy,” he said. “It's the first time in history that El Salvador has introduced democracy. It's not me saying that, it's the people saying it.”
Asked about the influx of innocent people in the gang crackdown, he said El Salvador is currently transitioning from the world's murder capital to one of the safest countries, with the highest incarceration rate in the world. Said to be one. He dismissed foreign criticism as promoting failed “recipes” and ignoring the administration's own solutions.
His government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, but violence has also plummeted in a country that just a few years ago was known as one of the world's most dangerous countries.
That leaves voters like Marleny Mena, a 55-year-old businessman, willing to ignore concerns that Bukele is taking undemocratic steps to centralize power.
Mena, a street vendor in once gang-dominated downtown San Salvador, walks the streets fearing he could accidentally cross from one gang's turf to another and face serious consequences. He said he was scared. That fear has disappeared since Bukele began his crackdown.
“He needs a little more time. He needs the time he needs to continue to improve the country,” Mena said.
Critics like Reinaldo Duarte, an undocumented worker who sells books on the street, said he was voting for the FMLN not because it could win, but because he was voting against Bukele.
He said the economic downturn was having a disproportionate impact on undocumented workers and said there were “a lot of free gang leaders”, adding that Bukele's government is seeking transparency in the management of public funds and the fight against gangs. expressed concern about the lack of
Duarte's criticism was echoed by opposition politicians such as Claudia Ortiz of the VAMOS party, who urged voters to support candidates outside Bukele's party in parliamentary elections to maintain checks and balances. .
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” she said in a video recorded from her polling place. “When all the power is in the hands of one group, one political party, it becomes easier for them to steal, to lie, to say they are doing something they are not actually doing. .”
In the run-up to Sunday's vote, Bukele did not attend any public campaign events. Instead, the populist posted a simple message recorded from his couch and plastered on social media and television screens across the country. If he and his New Ideas Party do not win this year's elections, “the war on gangs will be in jeopardy.'' He said Congress is key for leaders to advance their policies. Special emphasis was placed on elections.
“The opposition will be able to achieve its only real plan to free gang members and use them to return to power,” he said.
Bukele, 42, and his party are increasingly being seen as a case study for broader policies. Rise of global authoritarianism.
“There is a growing rejection of basic principles of democracy and human rights, and support for authoritarian populism is growing among people who feel that concepts such as democracy, human rights, and due process are useless.” said Tyler Mathias, Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. .
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Aleman reported from Santa Tecla, El Salvador.
