El Salvador's president wins re-election with landslide victory

By James Blears

The result of El Salvador’s presidential election, which came a few hours later than expected, was never in doubt.

Nayib Bukele appeared to win with a margin of eighty-three percent. It represents a resounding approval at the ballot box for his tough stand against the notorious and terrorizing street gangs, having radically reduced crime across the board, particularly concerning homicide rates, during his first five-year term.

Still only forty-two, Bukele has been handed a mandate of five more years to complete the job that he started.

An accompanying triumph means that his New Ideas Party, which he himself created in 2018, has won fifty-eight of the sixty seats in the National Assembly – a show of approval for his platform.

His success has come with the arrest of more than 75,000 people, which constitutes more than one percent of the entire population, and with it, repeated extensions of state of emergency laws.

The presidency had been restricted to a single term, but in 2021, the Constitutional Court, dominated by his supporters, permitted Bukele to stand again, and he has now won an historic second term.

Mr. Bukele who describes himself as, “The World’s Coolest Dictator,” will be sworn in at an official inauguration in June.