El Salvador is holding presidential and legislative elections this Sunday under an emergency regime, which suspends some constitutional guarantees, and in the midst of the controversial nomination of the country’s current president, Nayib Bukele, for a second consecutive term despite the fact that the constitution does not allow consecutive re-election of candidates.
Bukele’s party is expected to obtain the majority of seats in Congress, according to survey measurements, which would continue to be the leading political force in the Central American country.
With the exception regime, a security measure implemented by the Bukele Government since March 2022 to combat gangs, the right to defense of detained persons is suspended, the inviolability of telecommunications is suspended and the term of the administrative detention for a maximum of 15 days.
However, this resolution makes a good part of the Salvadoran population feel “more secure”, who, according to the latest surveys published, will go out to vote “without fear.”
This measure, which has become the main and only action of the Executive against the gangs, has raised the popularity of Bukele, a great favorite to win in these elections with more than 80% support, according to public opinion polls.
And although Bukele’s opponents and some sectors of society have denounced human rights violations, the inhabitants of the populous communities and neighborhoods historically affected by the actions of gangs say they feel safe with this measure.
On Sunday, February 4, 2024, the more than 5.5 million Salvadorans called to vote will elect their next president from a shortlist of six political parties, including Bukele’s ruling Nuevas Ideas (NI), who is seeking re-election. which according to the surveys he would obtain.
The ruler, 42 years old and with great popularity, is the first president of the Salvadoran democratic era with the option of seeking immediate re-election and, if he wins, he would be the first to repeat the position despite the fact that the Constitution does not allow it. .
The path to Bukele’s re-election opened in 2021, when the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, which had been appointed by the ruling majority Congress without following the legal procedure, changed a criterion for interpreting the Constitution.
The judges, accused by the United States of being “loyal” to Bukele’s Executive, pointed out that the prohibition of immediate re-election is for a ruler who has been in power for 10 years.
Until before this change, a president had to finish his 5-year term and wait 10 to seek the Presidency again.
In addition, on February 4, 60 deputies will be voted on for the first time instead of 84, a change that arose after the approval in the Legislative Assembly of a regulation promoted by the Bukele Government.
The presidential election on February 4 will be the seventh since the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992, which represented the end of the civil war that El Salvador has experienced since 1980 and which left 75,000 dead and 8,000 missing.
