El Salvador announced on Sunday that President Nayib Boucre will be re-elected in a landslide, with polls suggesting President Nayib Boucle will be re-elected in a landslide, despite the country’s constitution clearly barring the president from seeking multiple terms. A presidential election will be held.
On Sunday, about 5.5 million Salvadorans will head to the polls to choose the country’s leaders for the next five years. The country entered a mandatory three-day silence period on Thursday during which participating candidates and political parties are not allowed to make any political statements or release any propaganda.
according to poll According to a January announcement by the University of Central America in El Salvador, 81.9% of voters intend to vote for Mr. Bukele, who is the president’s closest rival, Manuel Flores of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Party (FMLN). (approval rate: 4.2%). Joel Sánchez of the centre-right Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) received 3.4% support in the poll.
Bukele, who currently leads the ruling New Idea (NI) party, was a former FMLN member before taking office. exiled in 2017 for “violating” party principles. He ran successfully as an outsider in the 2019 presidential election. obtained The vote rate was 54%.
Mr. Boucle’s re-election on Sunday is almost certain, unprecedented in El Salvador’s modern democratic history and sparking international controversy. This is because the country’s constitution contains several articles that clearly stipulate that: Establish The president’s term of office is five years, and he is prohibited from serving multiple terms. to punish “Anyone who consents to any act, declaration or collusion to promote or support the re-election or continuance of the President of the Republic, or who uses direct means for that purpose,” completely loses his civil rights.
Thanks to a controversial Supreme Court ruling in 2021, Bukele can stand in Sunday’s election and is almost certain to win.
A court with all Supreme Court justices replaced Ahead of the ruling, the pro-Bukele majority in parliament announced the following new interpretation: Article 152 El Salvador’s constitution stipulates that the term of office of the president shall be five years, beginning on June 1 and ending on June 1, and that no person who has served as president may continue in office for one year. . More days. ”
among them interpretation, the court held that a sitting president can run again as long as he resigns six months before the end of his five-year term.bukele followed A loophole allowed him to step down as president on November 30, exactly six months before his current term expires in June 2024.
The current official president of El Salvador is Claudia Juana Rodríguez de Guevara. is assumed She joined the firm in December after serving as Bukele’s personal assistant. She will remain the country’s symbolic president until May 31, 2024.
The term limits controversy has had no appreciable impact on his popularity.he has a high approval rating hovering His approval rating has been around 92% since November, making him the president with the highest approval rating in Latin America.
Bukele’s overwhelming popularity extends to left-wing countries such as Chile. poll Seventy-eight percent of Chilean respondents indicated they had a positive opinion of El Salvador’s president.
Chili🇱 pic.twitter.com/V7BEAPXJyC
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibukele) February 1, 2024
The soon-to-be re-elected president has built community support through a fierce crackdown on gang violence that was once rampant in the country, targeting organized crime syndicates such as Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) and 18th Street. are collecting.
MS-13 and 18 gang members remain in solitary confinement cells during a visit by Osiris Luna, director of the Penal Center, to the maximum security prison in Izalco, Sonsonate, El Salvador, in September (out of frame). April 4, 2020 (Yuri Cortés) /AFP via Getty Images).
This crackdown, implemented through an ongoing state of emergency order restricting civil liberties, led to a dramatic decline in crime in El Salvador, including a nearly 70 percent drop in homicides. According to local security authorities.
In addition to building In preparation for the construction of a 40,000-bed “giant prison” in February 2023, the Salvadoran government has passed a series of laws. reform The country’s penal code was amended in July to allow local courts to hold mass trials against thousands of people arrested as part of the crackdown.
Related — Law and Order: El Salvador builds ‘giant prison’ to eradicate gangs
President of the Republic of El Salvador via Storyful
newspapers of el salvador El FaroAlthough he has criticized the Bukele government, report In 2023, as a result of the crackdown, gangs have virtually “disappeared” from El Salvador.
During September, El Faro explained Given the virtual disappearance of the opposition party and the growing strength and popularity of the ruling New Idea party, the upcoming elections are merely an “administrative procedure” necessary for Mr. Boucle to continue governing El Salvador.
In addition to the presidential election, El Salvador possession Parliamentary elections will be held on Sunday, and local elections will be held on March 3rd. Nuevas Ideas, which currently holds 56 of the 84 seats in parliament, is expected to secure 57 seats. poll Published by Francisco Gavidia University.
This week, radical leftist U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called on U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to take action against “threats to democracy” in El Salvador.bukele answered He said he was “honored” to be attacked by Omar and would be “very concerned” if he received her support in return.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan writer who chronicles life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
