Observers highlight a “relatively normal development” of elections in El Salvador

The consortium of private organizations and universities “Watch El Salvador 2024” indicated that the presidential and legislative elections, in which the president Nayib Bukele seeks immediate re-election despite the constitutional prohibition, have had a “relatively normal development”.

“From the information obtained, it is observed that there is a relatively normal development of the election day on February 4”he indicated in his first report.

However, he warned that there were “violations of specific procedural provisions, related to the period prior to the start of citizen voting”.

The consortium also noted “the record of military presence in an important part of the centers observed”.

They called the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) “to promote compliance with all the procedures contemplated in the electoral legislation for the normal development of the day”.

Voting centers

In its first preliminary report, this consortium indicated that 85.2% of the voting centers in which it has observers opened the polls at the designated time.

Before reaching the middle of the day, which will close at 5:00 pm, the representatives of the main opposition parties, Nationalist Republican Alliance (Sand, right) and Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN, left), pointed out irregularities.

The president of Arena, Carlos Saadedenounced in a video broadcast on the social network “only with Nuevas Ideas staff”the ruling party, and indicated that “staff who have been trained have been left out”.

For her part, the FMLN deputy and candidate for Congress, Anabel Bellosoalso pointed out that the ruling Nuevas Ideas party imposed on its personnel in the voting meetings in “complicity with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the Prosecutor’s Office”.

“Such thuggery is not possible”wrote the parliamentarian in her account on the social network X.

Bukele, 42, is the big favorite in these elections in which five candidates from opposition parties are also competing, including those from Arena and the FMLN, with practically no chance of victory, according to the polls.

Disseminated by EFE