El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, self-proclaimed “the coolest dictator in the world,” declared himself the winner of the national election with a landslide victory on Sunday, claiming he won more than 85% of the vote, despite officials elections have not published any results.
Bukele, 42, a leading candidate in El Salvador, was the favorite to win another five-year term due to his successful crackdown on gangs and improved security. Reuters reported.
He said his New Ideas party also won at least 58 seats in the 60-seat legislative assembly, despite concerns about the erosion of democracy.
“A record in the entire democratic history of the world,” Bukele said on X, the social network. “See you at 9 p.m. in front of the National Palace.”
Election officials have not yet commented on the results. The polls closed at 5 p.m. local time, about two hours before Bukele declared victory. An exit poll conducted by CID Gallup placed support for Bukele at 87%.
Bukele is expected to become the first Salvadoran president to be re-elected in nearly a century, potentially wielding unprecedented power and reforming El Salvador's constitution, which his opponents fear will lead to the elimination of term limits.
Bukele's popular security strategy, which suspended civil liberties to arrest more than 75,000 Salvadorans without charge, caused a significant decrease in homicide rates and transformed a country of 6.3 million people into one of the most dangerous in the world. world.
However, some analysts argue that this mass incarceration is not sustainable in the long term.
Hours earlier, Bukele held a news conference and said his party needed all the support it could muster to maintain its anti-gang fight and continue reshaping El Salvador.
“So, if we have already overcome our cancer, with metastases that were the gangs, now we only have to recover and be the person we always wanted to be,” said Bukele. “I think that El Salvador, after half a century of suffering, now is the time to move forward.”
Most voters appear to reward Bukele for reducing criminal groups in El Salvador, which made life difficult and fueled migration to the United States, despite doubts about the election outcome.
