The party of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele won twenty-six of the forty-four town halls at stake in the municipal elections of March 3, the electoral court announced on Friday March 8, after the head of state announced that he had won almost all of the seats.
The president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Dora Martinez, declared at a press conference that the Salvadoran head of state’s Nuevas Ideas party had won twenty-six town halls, as well as two others thanks to an alliance with the minority Cambio Democratico party.
Its right-wing allies, the National Conciliation Party and the Nationalist Republican Alliance, won three and one of the municipalities at stake, respectively.
The Grand Alliance for National Unity (right) won six town halls, the Christian Democratic Party four, Solidarity Force (right) one, and one town hall was won by a coalition between the National Conciliation Party and the Christian Democratic Party.
Victory announced without waiting for the announcement of the results
After 6.2 million voters were called to the polls on Sunday, Nayib Bukele claimed to have won with his allies forty-three of the forty-four municipalities, without waiting for the results to be announced.
The new mayors and their respective municipal councils will take office on May 1, the same date as the newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly, which will be dominated by the ruling party, with fifty-four seats out of sixty. Nuevas Ideas will have a sufficient majority to make decisions such as maintaining the emergency regime which supports the fight against gangs.
On Tuesday, an electoral mission from the Organization of American States said El Salvador still had “a long way to go” to achieve “effective,” “more transparent and, above all, more fair” polls.
