The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, claimed this Sunday that he had won the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections “with more than 85 percent of the vote”, shortly after denouncing the closure of polling stations without allowing voters to vote allow queuing.
“According to our figures, we won the presidential election with more than 85 percent of the vote and at least 58 of the 60 members of the Assembly. The record in the entire democratic history of the world. See you at 9:00 a.m. “God bless El Salvador,” Bukele posted on his account on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
According to preliminary data from the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), based on 31.49 percent of the vote, Bukele has more than 1,295,000 votes (around 76 percent support), representing a disastrous lead. As for the second force, the Farabundo Martí Front National Liberation Movement (FMLN), which has just over 110,000 votes (6.5 percent).
“El Salvador opens its doors wide to citizens of all countries in the world. We want them to come, visit us, get to know us.” We want to be your friends, your allies, your partners. What we won’t do is his minions. And that’s not just because we have this right, which we have, but also because we’ve been trying their recipes for 50 years and they’ve never worked,” Bukele said in his ceremonial address, alluding to the international criticism in his campaign against gangs.
Bukele exercised his right to vote this Sunday, just an hour and a half before the scheduled closing of polling stations, in a day that passed in an atmosphere of normality, although with some delays in the opening of some polling stations.
Opposition parties have also denounced anomalies, such as ARENA candidate Joel Sánchez, who denounced that Bukele’s party continues to carry out propaganda in the polling stations and called for mobilization to vote.
Bukele charges the Spanish press
El Salvador’s elected president, Nayib Bukele, attacked Spain in his first speech after his overwhelming victory in the presidential election, in which, as polls had predicted, he overtook his rivals by a wide margin and won his second mandate after bypassing the constitution .
Bukele explained that a Spanish journalist asked him why “they want to dismantle democracy”: “I told him, but what democracy are you talking about? Democracy means the power of the people. ‘Demos’ and ‘Kratos’. There is the word “comes from democracy,” he explained, referring to his election victory, in which he received around 80 percent of the vote.
“This means the power of the people. If the Salvadoran people want this, Why does a Spanish journalist come and tell us what the Salvadorans have to do? ¿Which democracy are you talking about? He talks about the democracy that his bosses tell him there in Spain. But that is not democracy. That would be colonialism, imperialism, elitism, plutocracy, you can call it whatever you want,” he said.
