Some 741,000 Salvadorans residing abroad are authorized to vote from this Saturday until February 4th over the internet to elect the president and deputies to Congress, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) reported.
In the elections, President Nayib Bukele is seeking reelection, after Congress granted him a six-month leave of absence in late November to compete. TSE President Dora Esmeralda Martínez, inaugurated the “remote online voting process” during an official event at a hotel in western San Salvador.
“The time has come for us to enable the system that will make voting possible for Salvadorans abroad through the online voting modality,” Martínez stressed. “I make a call to our brothers residing abroad to exercise their right to vote,” the TSE magistrate, Guillermo Wellman, signed on the X social network.
The constitutional court issued a controversial ruling that empowered Bukele to run for a second consecutive term, although the Salvadoran constitution did not allow reelection.
Seven out of 10 Salvadorans “agree” that President Nayib Bukele should be a reelection candidate, according to a survey by the Jesuit University of Central America (UCA).
Bukele’s massive popular support is because his “war” against criminal gangs brought tranquility to the population, but at the cost of restricting civil rights due to the state of exception regime that has ruled since March 2022, according to human rights groups.
In February’s elections, Congress will also be renewed, which will have 60 deputies instead of the current 84, due to a reform also promoted by Bukele. Bukele’s party, Nuevas Ideas, according to the UCA survey, leads the voting intention, with 61.7%, while the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) is in a distant second place with 2.6%, and the right-wing ARENA third with 1.5%.
