Salvadorans are voting this Sunday, March 3, to elect new municipal councils, considered by analysts to be the last link of power that the opposition is trying to challenge re-elected President Nayib Bukele, whose party also controls Congress.
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This Sunday, March 3, El Salvador elects 44 mayors and 20 representatives in the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), in a day that began with low attendance at the more than 1,590 polling stations, with delays in opening and with minor incidents recorded in some centers.
The president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Dora Esmeralda Martínez, assured on radio and television that the entire institutional apparatus is “in full swing” and called on Salvadorans to come and “vote freely.”
Good morning, for starting another mission for municipal elections and the Central American Parliament.
The voting centers open at seven in the morning. @TransparenciaAL present in El Salvador at the command of @gabymdeleon_de.
The international community observes elections. pic.twitter.com/5A3I6PydoT
— Luis Miguel Santibáñez Suárez (@LMSantibanez) March 3, 2024
6.2 million voters are called for in the race, but it is considered a mere “procedure” after the overwhelming victory of President Nayib Bukele in the general elections on February 4, in which his Nuevas Ideas party (center-right) also won. 54 of the 60 seats in Congress.
The voting centers opened at 07:00 local time (13:00 GMT) for a day that will last 10 hours. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal promised to give preliminary results on Sunday night.
By law, in this Sunday's elections, according to Martínez, “there is no voting” of Salvadorans abroad.
With 90% of the seats in Congress won, Bukele has enough votes to easily approve any bill, elect judges of the Supreme Court and the attorney general, and maintain the emergency regime with which he has combated gangs since two years ago.
Benefited by his crusade against gangs, Bukele was re-elected with a resounding 84.65% of the votesaccording to official scrutiny.
Its high popularity is the result of the fight against crime, which has accumulated more than 75,000 detainees and has returned the perception of peace to the streets of the country.
Although his crusade against gangs is questioned by humanitarian organizations, he favors his New Ideas party in these elections, in which 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament will also be elected.
“In general terms, the elections seem to be a matter of process, no major changes are expected,” anticipates the director of public opinion research at the Francisco Gavidia University (UFG), Óscar Picardo.
This Sunday's results “will confirm the concentration of power” of Bukele, which “would imply further weakening of the opposition” on the left and right, predicts researcher Óscar Picardo.
In June 2023, Congress reduced municipalities from 262 to 44, supposedly to reduce state expenses.
However, various analysts have interpreted this as a maneuver to concentrate the power of Nuevas Ideas more at the local level and leave the opposition out, in addition to avoiding electoral defeats in various municipalities.
During the campaign, The candidates for the Nuevas Ideas municipalities assured that “they are more willing and committed to working hand in hand” with Bukele.
A campaign focused on the figure of Bukele
The campaign focused “on the presidential figure, which is what generates the attraction of voters,” the director of the NGO Social Initiative for Democracy, Ramón Villalta, told AFP.
Regardless of who wins, according to Villalta, what will happen this Sunday is “a greater distance between the representatives of the local level and those represented”, due to the reduction in the number of municipalities.
With the new distribution, “the level of centralization will be greatly increased to the detriment of the rapprochement that existed” between the councilors and the population, warns Villalta.
“The tendency is to further strengthen a centralizing approach, to reduce municipal autonomy, to make municipalities more dependent” on the central government, summarizes the analyst.
Villalta also recalled that in the last four years the municipalities “have been affected” by the decrease in transfers of funds from the central government, which began to control the budgets for local works.
Decline in participation
According to a recent survey by the Central American University (UCA), Nuevas Ideas widely leads voters' preferences.
“We warn that there may be a setback in terms of participation” in the vote, warned the director of the UCA Institute of Public Opinion, Laura Andrade.
“If people consider that their vote does not represent a change or they think that it does not represent a substantive change to make the electoral results different, they will definitely be less motivated to go (to the polls),” he commented.
According to data from the Supreme Electoral Tribunalparticipation in the last two municipal and legislative elections was 53.39% in 2021 and 53.29% in 2018.
With AFP and EFE
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