El Salvador 2024 electoral-type events: Presidential and Legislative (Feb. 4), Locals (Mar. 3)

[ReallySuper]

a poet was arrested outside a polling station for reading the articles of the salvadoran constitution that prohibit presidential reelection

https://twitter.com/ysuca91siete/status/1754251018399862918

[ReallySuper]

this is also the first election with both online and in-person electronic voting for salvadorans living abroad. the contract for developing the electronic voting system (el salvador only uses paper ballots in its elections) was awarded by the government to a spanish company whose contract had the fewest details and the highest price (which increased during the contracting process in violation of salvadoran law), as well as no plan to ensure accuracy or prevent fraud/manipulation of the votes.

the voting centers abroad are in many cases being operated by members of nuevas ideas, as leaked audio shows the president's cabinet instructing poll workers abroad to coordinate with the consulates and disregard the law to facilitate a strong electoral showing for bukele since the party and the electoral board are on the same side. also, although the election observers are supposed to have representatives of the three largest parties, the electoral board ruled that the fmln would be replaced by gana, NI's coalition partner, and all of arena's election observers were rejected and did not receive their credentials. reports also show that the embassy/consulate officials (who are not supposed to be involved in the election) and nuevas ideas party officials are pulling people out of line to "help" them vote online rather than on the electronic voting machines.

the legislative votes abroad are also being directed into the san salvador department, which is understood to be a political maneuver to increase NI's votes in the area of the country which elected the most opposition candidates in the last election.

[ReallySuper]

who wouldve expected that making a drastic change to the electoral system/constituencies just a few months before the election would create problems... almost like there was a law in place to prevent electoral changes within a year of an election that nuevas ideas repealed to force through their gerrymandered plan to consolidate power...

[ReallySuper]

the final count/recount of 30% of the presidential ballots that weren't reported in the preliminary results as well as 100% of the legislative votes begins today (the head of the electoral board described the preliminary vote count, despite its complete failure, as having been done in an "accurate and transparent manner" to the country and international community). there are understandably a lot of concerns both generally about the recount and specifically that the san salvador votes were not secured by the electoral authorities in between the time the transmission of preliminary votes was ended and the time of the recount. (one article shows how a massive amount of ballot boxes, many having been opened/in bad condition, were sent to be stored in a bodega without explanation)

this quote is from a protest on monday night by several women's collectives in san salvador:

Estamos listas para luchar por nuestros derechos humanos porque El Salvador no es la finca de los Bukele, ni de nadie que quiera venir a tomar por la fuerza las tierras bañadas con sangre en búsqueda de dignidad y justicia, con la memoria de nuestras compañeras que han dando su vida en la lucha por un país justo, nos presentamos y unimos en un grito colectivo DICTADURA NUNCA MÁS.

We are ready to fight for our human rights because El Salvador is not the estate¹ of the Bukeles, nor of anyone who wants to come and take by force the lands bathed in blood in search of dignity and justice, with the memory of our compañeras who have given their lives in the fight for a just country, we show up and unite ourselves in a collective cry, DICTATORSHIP NEVER AGAIN.

¹"finca" in spanish, which carries a specific connotation in el salvador since it really refers to a tract of land, especially the coffee plantations that exploited the campesinas and campesinos for generations as essentially all the land in the country was owned by fourteen oligarchic families until the peace accords led to (some) land redistribution.

[ReallySuper]

the fmln will meet with other opposition parties and ask that the legislative elections be annulled due to the issues in the collection and counting of votes. they want the legislative election to be reheld alongside the already-scheduled municipal and central american parliament elections on march 3rd.

arena has also called for the elections to be annulled if the electoral tribunal goes through with their intent to open three voting centers in the u.s. for voters who werent able to vote after poll closing time although they were in line. the electoral code says that elections must be annulled if they are held anytime other than their scheduled date.

[ReallySuper]

pcn, pdc and gana are coalition partners of nuevas ideas, so the opposition has been reduced to just three seats between arena and vamos. with fmln gone there are no leftists left in the legislature. one civil society group calculated the results if the electoral reform passed by the governing coalition had not been enacted (thus if the number of seats and municipalities had stayed the same):

Legislative Assembly (+/- change from 2021)
NI 60 seats (+4)
ARENA 7 seats (-7)
FMLN 6 seats (+2)
PCN 2 seats (=)
GANA 3 seats (-2)
PDC 2 seats (+1)
Vamos 3 seats (+2)
Nuestro Tiempo 1 seat (=)

Municipal elections (+/- change from 2021)
NI 122 municipalities (-30)
GANA 36 (+8)
PDC 27 (+24)
FMLN 21 (-9)
PCN 18 (+4)
Fuerza Solidaria 12 (+12)
ARENA 11 (-25)
PCN-PDC 9 (+9)
PCN-GANA 3 (+3)
CD 1 (+1)
Vamos 0 (-1)
Nuestro Tiempo 0 (=)

NI would have a supermajority in the legislative assembly regardless, although fmln and vamos would gain seats and nuestro tiempo (also in the opposition) would have kept its seat. NI would have lost its absolute majority of municipalities; the opposition would also lose municipal seats, although at least fmln would not have been completely wiped out. speaking of which, after losing all their legislative seats and municipalities, fmln has vowed a "total reorganization" and their presidential candidate chino flores is aiming to become secretary-general of the party.

the parlacen elections were relatively unscathed by the governments electoral reforms, although they were the lowest turnout ever and 10% of votes were blank/invalid:

NI 613,965 53.39% 13 seats (-1)
ARENA 126,724 11.02% 2 seats (-1)
FMLN 98,926 8.60% 2 seats (+1)
GANA 90,241 7.85% 2 seats (+1)
PDC 87,997 7.65% 1 seat (+1)
PCN 72,068 6.27% 0 seats (-1)
Fuerza Solidaria 37,899 3.30% 0 seats (=)
CD 22,094 1.92% 0 seats (=)