The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukelesigned a decree this Wednesday by which the number of deputies in the Legislative Assembly is reduced from 84 to 60from the next legislature, which will be elected in 2024.

“I have just signed the electoral reform, which reduces the number of deputies from 84 to 60″, Bukele said on Twitter.

The president added that this legislation “eliminates the delegates on a residual basis, leaving only the delegates assigned by the number of votes.” In addition, the way in which Assembly seats are allocated will be changed.

The reduction in legislative seats was achieved through electoral reforms approved by 66 deputies, allies of Bukele.

El Salvador used the Hare formula, which consists of calculating an electoral quotient, dividing the votes cast in a given circumference among the seats contested there, and allocating to the parties as many seats as the number of times their votes reach the stated quotient. If no seats can be allocated, the largest residual lots of each party are used.

Instead, the D’Hondt system will be used from the 2024 electiona method of distributing seats in proportion to the number of votes received by political parties.

The government explained that with this initiative “aims to reduce government spending, promote equal voting, conduct the election according to rationale, and encourage decision-making in favor of the population”.

On Tuesday, when presenting the reform initiative, Interior Minister Juan Carlos Bidegain pointed out that the aim is to reduce the number of legislative seats “make it less stressfulLegislative Expenditure.

“Today we are taking an important step, by reducing the number of deputies we can spend less, the work will be done more efficiently, which is essentially what we are looking for,” said Suecy Callejas, Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and deputy of the pro-government party Nuevas Ideas.

However, the deputy of the opposition and the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), Marleny Funes, warned that the reduction in the number of seats “it is in the interest of the government to concentrate more power”.

“Obviously this government has an interest in controlling this legislative body, that’s all,” Funes said.

The election of the president and deputies to the General Assembly will take place on February 4, 2024, while the election of municipal councils of the country’s 262 municipalities and deputies to the Central American Parliament will take place on March 3 of the same year.