February 16, 2024: For immediate release

Opposition parties, civil society organizations in El Salvador fear retaliation after denouncing irregularities during legislative vote count

International observers echo concerns about vote tampering, ballot stuffing

This morning, Salvadoran police forces, including riot police, filled the San Salvador location where ballots are being counted from the February 4 legislative election. Members of opposition parties say representatives of the Attorney General’s office are threatening them with arrest for taking photographs during the count or denouncing irregularities and procedural violations.

The ballot-by-ballot count began February 12; after generalized delays in providing materials to poll workers needed for the preliminary vote count on election night, widespread technological failures prevented 95% of preliminary legislative results from being electronically recorded. Subsequently, entire ballot boxes, such as those from San Salvador, went missing for 36 hours. Photographs also show some ballot boxes in storage being unsealed and damaged.

Since the process began, opposition parties, civil society organizations, and international observers have documented the following concerns, leading some social movement groups to call for the elections to be annulled.

• Ballots being counted that appear new and uncreased (they must be folded twice in order to insert into the ballot box) or marked with pen rather than the standard issue crayon
• Final results being submitted with discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and voters who signed in at a given table, and other irregularities
• The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) prohibiting the reclassification of potentially valid votes nullified on election night, despite the removal of accredited poll workers supplied by opposition parties
• The disproportionate presence of representatives of Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party and interference in the process by administration officials
• The harassment and exclusion of independent media from the center

Multiple members of the TSE have dissented from official decisions and warned of “the presence of people outside the process who have been interfering with the count.”

Statement by CISPES: “As soon as the majority of TSE magistrates voted to permit Bukele’s candidacy in violation of the constitution, they lost any semblance of independence. Given the widespread irregularities throughout a process that has been overrun from top to bottom by Bukele’s own party, how can anyone trust the results that will be released?”

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The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) participated in international observer missions in El Salvador and for the electronic vote in the United States. Observers are available for comment.

Media Contact: Alexis Stoumbelis, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), [email protected] or 202-521-2510 ext. 205