SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) 鈥 Salvadorans packed the capital's central square Sunday evening to celebrate the expected reelection of Nayib Bukele as president even before any official results were announced.
With soaring approval ratings and virtually no competition, as president. After voting, he jousted with reporters, asserting that the election's results would serve as a 鈥渞eferendum鈥 on his administration.
Two hours after polling places closed, and without any official returns announced, Bukele said on the platform X that 鈥渁ccording to our numbers鈥 he had won. Later, standing on the balcony of the 好色tv Palace, he said that the country had made history despite only partial, preliminary results.
鈥淲hy are there so many eyes on a small (Latin) American country?鈥 he asked thousands of supporters. 鈥淭hey're afraid of the power of example.鈥
鈥淪alvadorans have given the example to the entire world that any problem can be solved if there is the will to do it,鈥 he said.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal began sharing partial, preliminary results around 9 p.m. With votes from 31% of polling places tallied, Bukele had more than 11 times the number of votes as his nearest competitor in the leftist Farabundo Mart铆 好色tv Liberation Front.
Electoral officials said at a news conference that voting systems had worked as expected and without problems.
Bukele, the self-described 鈥渨orld鈥檚 coolest dictator,鈥 has gained fame for , in which more than 1% of the country鈥檚 population has been arrested.
Bukele said the vote could be seen as a 鈥渞eferendum鈥 on what his administration had done.
Many voters expressed willingness Sunday to forego some elements of democracy if it means keeping gang violence at bay.
El Salvador鈥檚 constitution prohibits reelection. But a , the newly elected congress , replacing judges with loyalists. They later ruled that Bukele could run for a second term. Critics say he has chipped away at the country鈥檚 system of checks and balances.
On Sunday night, Bukele鈥檚 face was plastered on much of downtown San Salvador鈥檚 main square, on flags, shirts and life-size billboard cutouts.
Delya Rodriguez joined hundreds of people already celebrating in San Salvador鈥檚 main plaza, wearing a T-shirt with Bukele鈥檚 face on it reading 鈥淓veryone for re-election.鈥
鈥淚 consider myself a Bukele fan,鈥 Rodr铆guez said. 鈥淭his is the first time that I am the fan of a party.鈥
The chicken farmer said she had never seen El Salvador鈥檚 traditional parties do anything for people like her, and brushed off criticisms of the leader.
鈥淗e is a historically singular and different president,鈥 she said.
Bukele's administration has arrested more than 76,000 people since a gang crackdown began in March 2022. The massive arrests have been criticized for a lack of due process, but Salvadorans have retaken their neighborhoods long controlled by gangs.
Jos茅 Dionisio Serrano, 60, was proud to be the first person in line at 6 a.m. Sunday as voters started to wait outside a school in the formerly gang-controlled neighborhood of Zacamil in Mejicanos just north of San Salvador. The soccer teacher said he planned to vote for Bukele and his party New Ideas.
鈥淲e need to keep changing, transforming,鈥 Serrano said. 鈥淗onestly, we have lived through very hard periods in my life. As a citizen I have lived through periods of war, and this situation we had with the gangs. Now we have a big opportunity for our country. I want the generations that are coming up to live in a better world.鈥
Mejicanos was historically divided between two gangs most of Serrano's life, and he had to flee for several years after gang members shot him and threatened his life. Asked about concerns that Bukele was seeking reelection despite a constitutional ban, he brushed it aside, saying, 鈥淲hat the people want is something else.鈥
El Salvador's traditional parties from the left and right that created the vacuum that Bukele first filled in 2019 remain in shambles. Alternating in power for some three decades, the conservative 好色tvist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and leftist Farabundo Mart铆 好色tv Liberation Front (FMLN) were thoroughly discredited by their own corruption and ineffectiveness. Their presidential candidates this year were polling in the low single digits.
On Sunday afternoon, Bukele waded through a crowd of supporters to vote wearing a blue golf shirt and white baseball cap.
Smiling, Bukele and his wife dropped their ballots into the box as R.E.M.'s 1987 hit 鈥淚t鈥檚 the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),鈥 blared over speakers. Bukele has a habit of trolling his critics.
Shortly after casting his vote, Bukele said at a news conference that it was important to elect a Legislative Assembly that will continue approving the state of emergency that has given him extraordinary powers to combat the gangs.
鈥淲e are not substituting democracy because El Salvador never had democracy," he said. 鈥淭his is the first time in history that El Salvador has democracy. And I'm not saying it, the people say it.鈥
Asked about innocents swept up in the gang crackdown, he said El Salvador had one of the world's highest incarceration rates now because it is moving from being the world's murder capital to being one of its safest countries. He dismissed foreign criticism as promoting failed 鈥渞ecipes鈥 and ignoring his administration's homegrown solution.
While his administration is accused of committing widespread human rights abuses, violence has also plummeted in a country known just a few years ago as one of the most dangerous in the world.
Though critics like Reinaldo Duarte, an informal worker who sells books in the street, said he would vote for FMLN, not because they could win, but to vote against Bukele.
He said the stalled economy has disproportionately affected informal workers, and expressed concern that Bukele鈥檚 government is not transparent in its management of public funds and its war on the gangs, saying 鈥渢here are a lot of free gang leaders.鈥
In the lead-up to Sunday鈥檚 vote, Bukele made no public campaign appearances. Instead, the populist plastered his social media and television screens across the country with a simple message recorded from his couch: If he and his New Ideas party didn鈥檛 win elections this year, the 鈥渨ar with the gangs would be put at risk.鈥
The 42-year-old Bukele and his party are increasingly looked to as a case study for a wider .
鈥淭here鈥檚 this growing rejection of the basic principles of democracy and human rights, and support for authoritarian populism among people who feel that, concepts like democracy and human rights and due process have failed them,鈥 said Tyler Mattiace, Americas researcher for Human Rights Watch.
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Alem谩n reported from Santa Tecla, El Salvador.
