President Nayib Bukele: Winning Reelection with 81.9% of Votes in El Salvador

2024-01-19 03:36:00
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele (AP photo/Salvador Melendez, File)

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, would win re-election with 81.9% of the votes in the February 4 elections, a survey by the private Central American University (UCA, Jesuit) estimated this Thursday.

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In a simulation of the scrutiny carried out with a voting ballot, Bukele, of the Nuevas Ideas (NI) party, obtained 81.9% of voting intention, according to the survey, which has a margin of error of 2.7% and was carried out from January 3 to 14 with a sample of 1,264 people.

In a distant second place is the candidate of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), former deputy Manuel Flores, with 4.2%; while the Right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), with businessman Joel Sánchez, reaches 3.4%.

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The same survey gave the candidate of Nuestro Tiempo (NT, center), Luis Parada, 2.5%; while two other candidates from minor parties together add up to 2.2%. The rest voted null or abstained.

The country is facing “the most asymmetric elections” since 1992, declared the vice-rector of the UCA, Omar Serrano, when presenting the study.

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On Tuesday, in another survey carried out by the Francisco Gavidia University (UFG), also private, Bukele obtained 70.9% of the voting intention, the FMLN 2.9% and Arena 2.7%. The rest was around 1%. 21.2% abstained from giving an opinion or said they would annul their vote.

Bukele would win re-election in El Salvador with 81.9% of the votes, according to a new survey (EFE/FILE)

Both the FMLN and Arena dominated Salvadoran politics after the civil war (1980-1992), until Bukele in 2019 broke that two-party system.

With a registry of 6.2 million voters, Congress will also be renewed in the elections, currently dominated by the ruling party and its allies and which will have 60 deputies instead of the current 84 after an electoral reform.

The projection, according to the UFG survey, is that the Nuevas Ideas party would obtain 57 deputies, 2 Arena, and 1 the Christian Democratic Party.

On November 30, the president received a license from Congress for six months to launch his re-election campaign.

Bukele enjoys broad support for his “war” against gangs, which brought tranquility to the population, but at the cost of civil rights limited by an emergency regime that has been in force since March 2022, according to human rights groups.

A controversial ruling by the Constitutional Court empowered Bukele to run for a second consecutive term, although the Salvadoran Magna Carta did not allow re-election.

Another survey conducted last December by the UCA found that seven out of 10 Salvadorans “agree” with Bukele being a candidate for re-election.

On November 30, the president received a license from Congress for six months to launch the re-election campaign in the upcoming elections.

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