The counting of votes began yesterday in El Salvador at 5 p.m. local time. Local media television broadcasts showed the scrutiny in counties like Santa Ana, Sonsonate and Ahuachapán, where officials kept repeating, “New ideas, new ideas, new ideas” as they showed the ballots confirming the overwhelming victory of the for President Nayib Bukele was re-elected for another five years in office.
The five opposition candidates barely appeared in the vote. In 31% of transcripts processed by the Supreme Electoral Court at press time, Bukele received 82.9% of the vote, above the 7% of second place candidate Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). . ), Manuel Flores.
Television broadcasts from polling stations showed the joy of ruling party representatives taking turns holding ballot papers in their hands, while members of the right-wing National Republican Alliance (Arena) and other opposition parties were bored watching his defeat.
According to our numbers, we won the presidential election with more than 85 percent of the vote and at least 58 out of 60 representatives. The record in the entire democratic history of the world. God bless El Salvador,” Bukele published in
Security improved before everyone couldn’t be here. I hope that this continues and that the economic situation improves,” Santos de Martínez, a 66-year-old housewife, told AFP after the vote in La Campanera, northeast of the capital San Salvador, once a stronghold of the Barrio 18 gang . .
Bukele’s strategy to appease El Salvador has so far resulted in 75,000 criminals being imprisoned and a mega-prison with capacity for 40,000 inmates being built.
At 10:16 p.m., Bukele walked hand in hand with his wife, Gabriela Rodríguez, onto a balcony of the government palace in central San Salvador to thank thousands of Salvadorans.
Simple and wearing a beige long-sleeved shirt, he gave his first speech as re-elected president. “Today El Salvador broke all records of every democracies in the entire history of the world. “Never has a project won with as many votes as we won that day.”
To the cheers of the crowd, which did not allow him to continue without applause after each sentence, he assured: “It would be the first time that a single party exists in a country in a fully democratic system.” “The entire opposition became united pulverized.”
Those who do not know El Salvador, those who have never visited it, say that Salvadorans live oppressed, that they do not want the emergency regime, that they are afraid of the government, I tell journalists from the safest country in the Western Hemisphere . No. Believe me, I’m just a politician, believe the people who tell them.
“The Salvadoran people have spoken loud and clear in the history of world democracy. If this does not convince you, gentlemen of the NGOs, the international organizations, the OAS, nothing will convince you,” he explained.
With information from AFP
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