Municipal and Central American Parliamentary Elections take place today in El Salvador following resounding denouncements from across the political spectrum of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for having abdicated their responsibility to the governing party.

In the shadow of last month’s extraordinary presidential and legislative elections, which gave Nayib Bukele an unconstitutional second mandate, Salvadorans again head to the polls today, Sunday, March 3, 2024 -- this time for municipal leaders and Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) representatives. Initial reports point to low voter turnout, irregularities, and restricted press access to voting centers.

The elections follow significant gerrymandering, which has completely redrawn the municipal landscape, and routine violations of electoral regulations by representatives of Bukele’s government and party Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas). There is also little confidence in the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to carry out the election. The TSE, after having been resoundingly denounced from across the political spectrum for abdicating their responsibility to the governing party, is carrying on with with these elections that many are denouncing as a charade given that their actions in the February election suggest that that their mandate to ensure the true will of the Salvadoran people is reflected through the electoral process has been compromised.

Voters will select mayors and city council members in 44 new municipalities ("municipios" or townships) after 2023 reforms, passed by Bukele’s allies in the Legislative Assembly, consolidated the country’s 262 previously-existing "municipios". The move intended to shore up near-total control for the Nuevas Ideas party after polling showed slipping support for the party’s mayors. Passed with no debate in the Assembly, questions remain about how the new municipalities will be governed. For example, it is unclear which local ordinances will take precedence in the newly-consolidated municipalities. Former municipalities will be converted into "districts" within the new, consolidated and reduced number of municipalities, limiting citizen access to, and influence over, local decisions.

Salvadoran media and opposition party candidates have been denouncing foul play by Nuevas Ideas party candidates for months. In one case, Milagro Navas, who has been mayor of Antiguo Cuscatlan for 36 years with the far-right ARENA party, has accused Nuevas Ideas of issuing ID cards to people from other municipalities so they can vote in her highly-contested election. Navas’s opponent, current Housing Minister Michelle Sol, is the wife of Ernesto Castro, president of the Legislative Assembly. Navas also accuses Nuevas Ideas of sending employees of the Housing Ministry to act as party vigilantes to influence the vote.

In the newly-created South La Libertad municipality, three opposition parties (FMLN, Nuestro Tiempo, and Vamos) have denounced the removal of their campaign posters by a sitting Nuevas Ideas mayor, to which the TSE has not responded. Video has also surfaced of the same mayor, Henry Flores, illegally passing out bags of food to residents days before the election.

The TSE, tasked with carrying out the elections, has faced major criticism from popular social movements, opposition parties, and elections transparency organizations, which has only grown since February’s elections. February’s elections also suffered major technical failures. The vote count transmission system totally collapsed on the night of the election, leading to a weeks-long recount process that was rife with irregularities and allegations of fraud. Much of the recount process was dominated by Nuevas Ideas militants, usurping the role of the TSE. In light of those events, civil society groups have called for an exhaustive public audit into the errors and the FMLN officially petitioned that the vote count be done by hand for these elections. In a communique, the Popular Resistance and Rebellion Bloc (BRP), a leftist grassroots coalition, expressed their rejection of February’s election, characterizing the approval of Bukele’s unconstitutional candidacy by the TSE as the primary source of fraud. They also denounced that the many of the undemocratic conditions (like the ongoing State of Exception) that defined February’s election remain in place. They had previously called for the annulment of the February’s elections, and in the absence of such, called on opposition parties to withdraw their participation in today’s election.

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