As projected by opinion polls in recent months, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is the favorite to win this Sunday's general elections (4) in the country, as the long official count moves towards completion. The young president, aged 42, was the first to run for re-election since the end of the civil war in the country, in 1992.
“According to our numbers, we won the presidential election with more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 of the 60 deputies in the Assembly (Parliament)”, stated the Salvadoran president in advance.
Until Sunday night, the count indicated a lead of 31.49% for the president, equivalent to 1,295,888 votes, followed by Manuel Flores, with 110,244, and Joel Sánchez, with 96,700.
Bukele is considered the most popular president in Latin America, with an approval rating of over 90% – nine out of ten Salvadorans approve of his administration. Such popularity is due to his government's fight against the organized crime that controlled the Central American country.
In 2015, the small nation was considered the most violent in the world, with a homicide rate of 106.3 for every 100,000 inhabitants. This reality changed drastically after the arrival of President Nayib Bukele, in 2019, who declared a national state of emergency and began a strong fight against gangs in the following years of his term. As a result, in 2023, the country's homicide rate reached just 1.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to official statistics.
The main measure drawn up by the head of state was the construction of the largest prison on the American continent, with capacity to hold up to 40 thousand inmates: the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot). According to information from the Ministry of Infrastructure of El Salvador, the prison is intended for leaders of criminal factions such as Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), the largest that operate in the country. The latest figures released by the government show 68,294 prisoners during the exception period alone.
Bukele is running for re-election after El Salvador made interpretive changes to the country's law and judicial system, which did not allow the president a new term. With the reinterpretation, the only condition imposed by Parliament was the resignation of the president from the position of president six months before the electoral race, a measure he accepted.
Among the candidates running for head of state are Manuel Flores, from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN, left-wing) and Joel Sánchez, from the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena, right-wing), the two parties that governed the country until the rise of Bukele and his legend, Novas Ideias (NI).
If the current president's numbers are confirmed, he will be the first president to be re-elected in the last 32 years in the country.
Most of the voting centers available in El Salvador closed at 5pm (8pm in Brasília), this Sunday (4), giving way to the beginning of the counting of the election in which the current president is seeking re-election. According to research, the estimate is that he will reach between 65 and 80% of the votes.
To win in the first round, one of the candidates must obtain 50% of the votes plus one in their favor, a number that has already been unofficially achieved by Nayib. If none reach this percentage, there will be a second round with a date yet to be defined between the two best placed.
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