According to the electoral authority of El Salvador, they have announced that there will be a hand count of the ballots from the country’s presidential and legislative assembly elections. This decision was made after they reported system failures in transmitting the votes.
President Nayib Bukele’s victory is not in question, as he currently has 83% of the majority of the vote counted. However, there is focus on the country’s 60 congressional seats and the impact of a potential supermajority for Bukele in Congress.
If Bukele’s party were to secure a supermajority in Congress, it would give him unprecedented power. This includes the ability to change the country’s constitution and continue to shelve constitutional rights as part of his crackdown on the country’s gangs, which has drawn criticisms from rights groups.
Bukele had declared his New Ideas party as the winner of 58 out of the 60 congressional seats without the official results being announced. The electoral body has not declared an official winner in either vote as of yet.
Reports of irregularities, glitches, and power and internet outages have led to scrutiny of Bukele’s declarations. There were ultimately systematic failures with the voting process, according to multiple reports.
Head of the electoral authority, Dora Esmeralda Martinez, acknowledged the difficulties in the counting process, stating that “Some inconveniences made it difficult for it (the counting) to happen as planned,” during a television appearance on Monday.
The remainder of the presidential vote is now being counted at the Hilton hotel in the capital, while the counting for the congressional seats is set to begin on Thursday in a soccer stadium.
During his first term, Bukele utilized his party’s congressional majority to heavily influence the institutions and courts in his favor. This has set the stage for a potential second term, despite a constitutional ban on re-election. Bukele has also not ruled out the possibility of running for a third term.
Analysts and opponents have raised concerns about electoral reforms made by the congress before the election, which they say have favored Bukele’s party by lowering the number of seats from 84 to 60.
Throughout his campaigning, Bukele urged Salvadorans to cast their ballots for congress, warning that if New Ideas lost seats, the opposition would “free gang members and use them to return to power.”
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria and Sarah Kinosian; Editing by Michael Perry)
