Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and his New Ideas party have won the supermajority the leader needs in congress to govern as he pleases, electoral officials announced on Monday.
The announcement comes after a painstaking vote counting process, which has raised the hackles of electoral watchdogs and the country’s weak opposition, who cite irregularities.
Bukele won re-election on Feb. 4 with 84.7 percent of the vote. What had remained up in the air was if Bukele’s New Ideas party would be equally as successful in legislative elections.
Photo: AP
On Monday, officials announced that New Ideas won 54 of the 60 congressional seats. Allied parties won an additional three seats.
Despite not having the final results, the leader had already declared victory in the presidency and in congress the night of the election, saying: “El Salvador has broken all the records of all democracies in the entire history of the world.”
“Never has a project won with the number of votes we have won today,” Bukele said. “It is literally the highest percentage in all of history.”
Now — with the vote actually certified — the supermajority effectively gives the self-described “world’s coolest dictator” even firmer control of all three branches of government.
The 42-year-old leader is massively popular in El Salvador due to his war on the country’s gangs, which resulted in a sharp drop in violence.
However, Bukele has also been accused of undemocratic moves, including carrying out an electoral reform that critics say stacked the vote in favor of his New Ideas party, particularly in legislative and local elections.
Last year, congress passed electoral reforms that reduced the number of seats in the unicameral chamber to 60 from 84, a move expected to favor New Ideas.
Bukele needs congress to continue emergency measures approved month-to-month for his gang crackdown. Previously, the leader clashed with opposition parties in congress blocking his initiatives, even showing up to congress with armed military officers.
“Now, he doesn’t need any other party,” said Eduardo Escobar, a lawyer with the nongovernmental organization Citizen Action who said that before the election, Bukele would at least have to pull on support from allied parties.
Congressional control would also potentially allow him to alter the constitution – which bans leaders from holding consecutive terms – to stay in power.
While constitutional lawyers argue it is illegal to make such changes, Bukele already sparked controversy by running for re-election. His party’s majority in congress and a friendly court they stacked allowed him to dodge the constitutional ban.
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