Arrr! Them scallywags be wantin' to cancel the results of El Salvador's grand congressional election. Blimey!
2024-02-07
Arrr! El Salvador's Cap'n Nayib Bukele be triumphant once again, claimin' a mighty 83% o' the vote! Aye, he be sailin' on a grand anti-gang mission. But alas, the scoundrels be fightin' over 60 seats in the Congress o' this Central American land!
As El Salvador's electoral body begins a vote-by-vote count of last week's election results, the political opposition has raised concerns about irregularities and threatened to nullify the results of the legislative elections. President Nayib Bukele, who won re-election with 83% of the votes, is not in question, but the fight for the 60 seats in Congress has become the focus of attention. Control of Congress is crucial for Bukele to continue his war against El Salvador's gangs and carry out his agenda. Bukele's party, Nuevas Ideas, has already declared victory in 58 of the 60 seats, despite only a small fraction of the count being made public.However, the vote count has come under scrutiny due to irregularities and system glitches that caused the collapse of the results transmission system. As a result, a manual recount of the legislative and part of the presidential votes has been called for by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Opposition parties, including the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), are considering demanding the nullification of the congressional election results and calling for another round of voting.
Opposition groups, including Nuestro Tiempo, VAMOS, and the conservative National Republican Alliance (Arena), have echoed concerns about the vote count and are also considering asking for the results to be nullified. Bukele's Nuevas Ideas party's majority in congress and the favorable court they stacked have allowed him to bypass a constitutional ban on reelection. Electoral analysts believe a recent electoral reform carried out by Bukele's party has also favored their chances in legislative and local elections.
Despite these concerns, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has not yet received any requests to annul the results and their priority remains ensuring an accurate count. The final vote counting process will be supervised by representatives of political parties, electoral prosecutors, human rights organizations, and national and international observers.