President Nayib Bukele secured a thumping victory in El Salvador's elections after voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that transformed security in the Central American country.
Create a free account to read this article
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Thousands of Bukele's supporters clad in cyan blue and waving flags thronged San Salvador's central square on Sunday to celebrate his re-election, which the 42-year-old leader termed a "referendum" on his government.
Bukele declared himself the winner before official results were announced, claiming to have attained more than 85 per cent of the vote. Provisional results showed Bukele winning 83 per cent support with 31 per cent of the ballots counted.
His New Ideas party is expected to win almost all of the 60 seats in the legislative body, tightening its grip on the country and bestowing even more sway on Bukele, the most powerful leader in El Salvador's modern history.
"All together the opposition was pulverised," Bukele, standing with his wife on the balcony of the National Palace, told his supporters.
"El Salvador went from being the most unsafe (country) to the safest. Now in these next five years, wait to see what we are going to do."
New Ideas' electoral success means Bukele will wield unprecedented power and be able to overhaul El Salvador's constitution, which his opponents fear will result in scrapping of term limits.
Wildly popular, he campaigned on the success of his security strategy under which authorities suspended civil liberties to arrest more than 75,000 Salvadorans without charges.
The detentions led to a sharp decline in nationwide murder rates and fundamentally altered a country of 6.3 million people that was once among the world's most dangerous.
But some analysts have said the mass incarceration of one per cent of the population was not sustainable long-term.
Few doubted the outcome of the elections. Polls showed most voters wanted to reward Bukele for decimating the crime groups that made life intolerable in El Salvador and fueled waves of migration to the United States.
Guadalupe Guillen, a 55-year-old shopkeeper, showed up at the victory party dressed in a tunic and Arab scarf, a nod to Bukele's Palestinian family heritage.
"We are celebrating, thanking him, thanking God, for getting us out of this gang problem. We don't want to go back to that horrible past," said Guillen, who added she no longer pays $300 in extortion to the gangs every fortnight.
"Democracy is not at risk because all the people have voted for him."
Candidates for FMLN and ARENA, two parties that rotated power between them until 2019, were set to receive single digit support as voters once again rejected traditional parties whose rule was marked by violence and corruption for decades.
Bukele came to power in 2019 trouncing traditional parties with a vow to eliminate gang violence and rejuvenate a stagnant economy.
He used his New Ideas party's super majority in the Legislative Assembly to pack the courts with loyalists and overhaul state institutions, solidifying his control of key parts of the government.
He also championed the introduction of Bitcoin as legal tender, drawing criticism from the International Monetary Fund.
El Salvador's Supreme Electoral Tribunal last year permitted him to run for a second term even though the country's constitution prohibits it.
Opponents fear Bukele will seek to rule for life, following President Daniel Ortega from next-door Nicaragua.
Australian Associated Press
