Bukele is enthroned in an illegitimate and deceitful manner

The election of municipal councils and Central American parliament on March 4 closed the electoral cycle in El Salvador.

The result gave the majority to Nayib Bukele's party in all instances of popular election, but with the exception of his unconstitutional re-election, the cyan steamroller in the Legislative Assembly and in the mayor's offices has less to do with the popularity of the president (the campaign He had no other option than to work hand in hand with him) and even more so with fraud.

Fans of the president and his party will say that talk of fraud is an exaggeration and that in reality it was the popular will that spoke to eliminate the opposition, but that is also questionable taking into account that absenteeism key marked the electoral cycle. which just closed.

Only 52.6% of the population voted in the presidential and legislative elections, and only approximately 38% to 40% went to vote for their mayors.

The irregularities between one election and another probably influenced the disdain of the population, but we must also remember that this population lost its electoral jurisdiction with the reform that the ruling Assembly approved just seven months before the elections.

A reform that reorganized the country politically from 262 municipalities to only 44.

The ruling party can repeat as many times as it deems necessary that it was a way to save money, but having secured 43 of the 44 possible mayoralties between its parties and the ruling party's allies only makes it clear that the true intention was to accumulate as much power as possible. .

And, of course, to avoid accusations of dictatorship, everything was disguised as an electoral process that had no guarantees for anyone—not even for international observers—except for the ruling party.

When on the night of March 3, Bukele declared himself the winner and announced that they had won 58 of the 60 possible seats in the Legislative Assembly, the votes for president had not even finished counting and the legislative vote boxes had not even been opened.

As a good lord of signs, what Bukele really wanted was to announce his version of democracy with a hegemonic party.

What followed that speech was the worst demonstration of voter surveillance seen in El Salvador during the democratic era.

Curiously, in the twilight of this, before the installation of the dictatorship.

Not only did the vote counting system fail, which duplicated marks for Bukele's party and did not attribute those of the opposition parties, the biggest absurdity was that the Vote Receiving Boards did not even have internet and in some of them the power even went out. .

The people in charge worked until the early hours of the morning to count each of the ballot boxes using paper and pen.

The irregularities were such that bags full of ballots were found cornered in schools that served as voting centers and the boxes containing the votes had obvious signs of having been adulterated.

The chain of custody is designed in such a way that different institutions safeguard the electoral material.

But since the separation of powers has not existed in El Salvador since May 2021, it cannot be guaranteed that what is being protected are the rights of the citizens instead of those of the president.

The process was so deficient and irregular that the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal herself spoke of intervening in the process to “boycott” it.

The official, appointed by the ruling party, did not give statements on the matter and accused the press of misinforming and not being “objective” for pointing out that José Cristian Portillo Portillo, head of the Court's Computer System Unit, was a trusted employee of the President Bukele between 2015 and 2021.

And that was just the beginning of a blatant fraud, in which ballots that were folded up to four times to enter the ballot boxes appeared plain on the final counting tables while others appeared marked with marker instead of the crayon that the Court itself grants. as part of the electoral package.

The vote counting had mostly New Ideas vigilantes who with thuggery and arrogance denied access to the press.

They wanted to avoid the presence of opposition parties and even expelled an OAS observer.

The authoritarian package would not have been complete without the exaggerated and unsolicited presence of the National Civil Police.

The result was favorable for the ruling party, but the numbers obtained would have changed the arithmetic in Congress where the opposition, if the vote counting formula had not been changed, would have obtained at least 11 seats.

The goal was clear: to undermine the minority parties.

The strategy worked so well that it even left out the party that brought Bukele to the presidency.

The opposition has now been restricted to three deputies and one mayor, among whom stands out the figure of Claudia Ortiz, who since her re-election was confirmed they mounted a smear campaign ensuring that the votes she received were from gang members.

All for being one of the voices that has repeatedly called for the repeal of the emergency regime, which this March marks two years of validity, and for echoing the thousands of arbitrary arrests that have even meant death for innocent people within of the prisons.

Voices like Ortiz's are valuable for the dark times that El Salvador is experiencing, where young democracy has been sent to the drawer like someone who keeps the Christmas tree in January, but it is still worrying that dissidence does not take into account struggles fundamental for everyone.

Guaranteeing access to comprehensive sexual education for children and adolescents, for example, is also part of living in a democratic society in which informed decisions are made freely.

On the issue, which was aired on the eve of the municipal election, there was only silence on the part of this new opposition, one that after all is conservative right-wing and that puts beliefs before rights.

It is true, there is very little room for action in a system controlled by a single person and his henchmen, but if those people who have the loudspeaker within their reach do not raise their voices in the face of the regression in fundamental rights, the population has fewer tools to demand what that belongs to him.

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