It is an absolute victory for Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. And an upheaval total and unprecedented electoral landscape of this small Central American country, dominated for thirty years by two parties, the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN, left) and the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena, right).
The young formation of the head of state, Nuevas Ideas, should win hands down the legislative elections of Sunday, February 28, according to still partial results. A sufficient majority to obtain, alone or in coalition with the GANA party (Grand Alliance for National Unity), which brought Mr. Bukele to power in 2019, two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly (AN). Thus giving the president, accused of authoritarian drift, the keys to a government without opposition.
If the results are confirmed, the FMLN and Arena, which have dominated the NA so far, will be literally erased from the political scene. Mr. Bukele, 39, white cap screwed upside down on his head and khaki jacket, won on Sunday evening, when only 0.09% of the ballots had been counted.
Reduced homicide rate
“So far, the president’s constant attacks on the rule of law have been counterbalanced by checks and balances effective: the Constitutional Court, an independent press which does not allow itself to be intimidated, the National Assembly ”, analysis José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas of the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW).
With a two-thirds parliamentary majority, Nayib Bukele will now be able to choose as he pleases the composition of the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal – which he has repeatedly accused of fraud -, change the attorney general and the defender of rights, in short, replace his critics the most acerbic. And, by the way, carve out a Constitution to suit him to run for the presidential election of 2024, which is currently impossible for him.
Riding on the population’s disenchantment with the two historic parties, each as corrupt as the other – the three presidents who ruled the country between 1999 and 2014 were imprisoned or are on the run – the charismatic Nayib Bukele was presented as an outsider, “Neither right nor left”, embodying the hope of renewal.
Two years later, voters voted for his impressive success in reducing the homicide rate, one of the highest in the world, from 50 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019 to 19 in 2020. And what does it matter if independent media El Faro revealed that this result is the result of an agreement between the government and the gangs, in particular the MS13 – which Mr Bukele fiercely denies. The management of the epidemic due to the coronavirus is also reaping praise, with the $ 300 in aid granted to families and the distribution of food baskets. Even if it came at the cost of the compulsory confinement of 16,000 people, positive or not, in unsanitary camps, for weeks.
You have 60.41% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
