El Salvador has elected a new president. Nayib Bukele of the conservative Great Alliance of National Unity (GANA), after the provisional final result, achieved 53.83 percent of the votes, as the electoral commission announced yesterday (local time) on Twitter. The former mayor of the capital San Salvador replaces left-wing President Salvador Sanchez Seren.
At the age of 37, Bukele became the youngest head of state in the Central American country. „We can say with confidence that we won the presidency in the first round,“ Bukele was quoted by his party on Twitter.
The 37-year-old’s rival – Carlos Calleja (42) of far-right Republican Nationalist Alliance (Arena) and Hugo Martinez (51) of left-wing National Liberation Front Farabundo Marti (FMLN) – admitted defeat. 5.2 million Salvadorans were eligible to vote.
Fight for education and against corruption
Previously, the electoral authorities had said that Bukele was after counting 70 percent of the vote at just under 53 percent. The entrepreneur Calleja was therefore 32 percent, ex-Foreign Minister Martinez knocked off at 14 percent. Bukele would therefore not have to run for the ballot, which was scheduled for March 10. The assumption of office is scheduled for 1 June. However, Bukele will have to rule without a majority in parliament – where his party has only 11 out of a total of 84 seats – or else have to form an alliance with the right-wingers who dominate parliament.
Should his victory be confirmed, it would be an epochal change for the Central American country, marked by violence and corruption, which has been ruled alternately by arena and FMLN over the past three decades.
Bukele has promised to invest more in education and fight corruption. Above all, he would have to implement new programs against the widespread insecurity in the country. The murder rate is 51 per 100,000 inhabitants and thus significantly above the global average. The population is also struggling with an economic crisis. Thousands of people flee each year, many with the US goal.
