Magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal of El Salvador dissociate themselves from the process that gave Bukele victory

The five substitute magistrates that make up the Electoral Court of El Salvador have disassociated themselves from the elections that on February 4 gave a landslide victory to the controversial president Nayib Bukele.

The Salvadoran newspaper

has published three letters sent by these officials to their fellow owners of the collegiate body, in which a week after the elections they denounce that during the process actions were committed that were far from the “legal” and “correct” form of direct a process of this magnitude and affirm that “we are no longer in the position of accepting decisions that have not been issued legally” nor “declarations and commitments made unilaterally.”

Bukele achieved re-election with an overwhelming majority of 82% of votes, according to the results made public by the Electoral Court on February 9, after chaotic days of counting the votes, due to the failure of the preliminary recount system.

The electoral authorities reported that they would open all the polls and carry out a ballot-by-ballot count to determine the number of deputies elected to the National Assembly.

The electoral body stated that the final count “was a success” and despite criticism from the opposition and local observers, the victory of Bukele and his New Ideas political movement has been taken for granted.

The process, however, has been denounced by five substitute magistrates of the court, who have stated that decisions were made that were not in accordance with the law.

In addition to the failure in the vote transmission system, these officials have warned of the criticism made by the opposition, which has insisted that the court did not provide timely information about the mechanism they should follow in counting the votes.

The right-wing Arena party decided to withdraw from the vote, considering that the electoral authorities did not guarantee “the conditions of a transparent process,” as reported by

.

In one of the letters published by the Salvadoran media, the magistrates report that they had warned that the TSE was “out of time to solve” the problems that the electoral system was facing.

According to that letter, “the magistrates say that by January 25 they knew that 'they were in an irremediable crisis' that had already altered a good part of the General Election Plan (PLAGEL).

This plan consists of 25 programs (or work axes) into which the organization of the electoral process is subdivided and which is considered the backbone of the entire organization.

The crisis and the rulings that were not amended in the last days of January, according to the substitute magistrates, could only have one result: a crisis on voting day,” reports

.

Officials also expressed doubts about the proper functioning of the electoral equipment.

“Were they properly tested?

"Were some changes made that prevented its correct functioning?", expressed the magistrates, who also affirm that they demanded that they be informed of the decisions that the organization made regarding the process.

“We cannot accept any responsibility for the problems that were presented to us untimely and the consequences that were reflected on February 4 [election day],” they denounce.

On the same day of the elections, President Bukele declared a landslide victory, before the Electoral Tribunal ruled on the results.

That night, the Salvadoran president announced his victory with 85% without waiting for the official results and attacked the opposition and the press.

The victory allows Bukele, 42, to continue with the emergency regime and his controversial policy to confront violence, which has allowed him to dismantle the so-called maras, gangs that spread terror in the Central American country.

With the emergency regime imposed eleven months ago by the president, more than 70,000 people have been imprisoned.

Human rights organizations have denounced that in many cases these are illegal captures, spurious trials and that serious violations have been committed in the country's prisons.

Bukele has criticized these complaints and despite them he maintains high approval from the population, who applauds the measures against gangs.

“Yes, okay, some unpleasant things have happened,” residents told this newspaper, “but we are a thousand times better than before.”

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