President Bukele declares himself the winner of the elections in El Salvador. President Hage Geingob of Namibia is dead – his successor Mbumba is sworn in

El Salvador’s controversial president, Nayib Bukele, has declared himself the winner of the Central American country’s presidential election. Bukele wrote on Sunday evening (local time) on the online platform X that he was re-elected with more than 85 percent of the votes.

His party Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) also won at least 58 of the 60 seats in parliament. Official election results were initially unavailable. About 6.2 million citizens were called to vote in the presidential and legislative elections, including 741,000 Salvadorans abroad.

At a press conference, Bukele rejected accusations that he ruled his country autocratically and jailed innocent people en masse. “El Salvador was the murder capital of the world,” the former advertising executive said. It is now the safest country in the Western Hemisphere. The election results will clearly express the will of Salvadorans.

The 42-year-old incumbent and former mayor of the capital San Salvador has been president since 2019 and, among other things, introduced the digital currency Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. In the fight against the country’s criminal gangs, the so-called Maras, he declared a state of emergency in March 2022. As a result, fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly were restricted. Since then, more than 75,000 suspected gang members have been arrested, most on suspicion alone and without access to a lawyer. Critics warn of a further weakening of the separation of powers and democratic control under Bukele in Central America’s smallest country.

El Salvador’s constitution effectively prohibits the direct re-election of the president. However, constitutional judges loyal to the government allowed Bukele to run for a second five-year term. To circumvent the ban, the head of state took a six-month leave of absence on December 1 – until the day of the scheduled inauguration on June 1. Meanwhile, a loyal official formally took over day-to-day political affairs, meaning Bukele’s influence remained virtually unaffected. The Congress, which is dominated by the ruling party, has also changed the rules for allocating seats in parliament so that electoral law now favors the majority party in allocating mandates. (sda/dpa)