Delays in opening polling stations, riots by government officials and crowds are part of what has happened at the national level.
Thousands of Salvadorans came out in the early hours to vote for the election of 84 members of the Legislative Assembly, 262 city councils and 20 representatives of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).
According to data from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), more than 5.3 million Salvadorans were called to vote this Sunday in the 1,595 voting centers located across the country.
Election day has passed between delays in opening polls, crowds and long lines of voters, in addition to some disturbances involving government officials.
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Traffic on the streets of San Salvador near the voting centers is complicated, with long lines of parked cars even in the afternoon. Entire families have come to the polls, some including their pets.
We list five things that have marked this day at a national level.
Without keeping your distance, you will find the outskirts of the Ciudad Arce polling station, the educational complex Monseñor Romero. Photo EDH / Jonatan Funes
1. Voting centers open late
At 7 a.m., long lines of Salvadorans were already waiting for the opening of the voting centers to exercise voting rights, but they were opened with a delay. For example, on Boulevard El Hipódromo, considered the largest polling station, the members of the JRV received the first election packages after 07:00 in the morning.
Voters had to wait more than two hours to enter. A similar situation occurred in polling stations in San Miguel, San Salvador, Ahuchapán, and other wards where crowds were generated where social distancing was the major concern of those present to vote. In ahuchapán there were voting centers that opened until 9:45 am
2. Osiris Luna enters the polling station by force
The General Director of Criminal Centers and Deputy Minister of Justice Osiris Luna, who traveled to Guaymango, Ahuachapán, to vote, was captured when the force entered along with other members of Nuevas Ideas and intervened in the installation of the voting-receiving council without be accredited for it.
Voters from a school in Guaymango broke into the gate of the voting center.
In a video posted by 106.9 FM Radio to its Twitter account, Luna is seen arguing with members of the JRV and making claims with a document in hand. The moment gets tense when the government official argues with a number of people who complain about entering by force and delaying the JRV processes. Luna has been heavily criticized on social media for starring in this altercation.
Also read: MINUTE BY MINUTE: Delays and crowds at polling stations, El Salvador’s most relevant election day
Luna also arrived at the Francisco Gavidia School Center, in El Refugio, in the same jurisdiction, where she wanted to mediate for representatives of the New Ideas party to join the JRV without having the respective accreditation, which was questioned by the president of the Municipal Electoral Council (JEM), Aura Lissethe Herrera.
Other sources indicated that the official identified himself as the party’s legal representative in Ahuachapán, but had to leave the place because he had not shown any accreditation.
That caused discontent among the members of Nuevas Ideas, who started to protest outside the polling station, keeping it open until 9:45 AM.
Photo: Óscar Iraheta
3. Arrested for electoral fraud
Josué Gómez Turcios, identified by the PNC as a vigilante for a political party, was arrested in La Unión and charged with the crime of electoral fraud. According to the police source, Turcios voted despite being banned from the electoral roll because he was convicted of another crime.
The Attorney General, Raúl Melara, said that despite being warned that it was not his responsibility to vote in the polling station that he did not identify, the civilian ignored him, so he was imprisoned and will be charged for the crime of electoral fraud in the courts.
Under the electoral law, the punishment for these crimes is four to six years, but if the subjects who participated in the above behaviors were public officials or election officials, they will be punished with seven to ten years’ imprisonment and banned from exercising his office.
4. Ernesto Muyshondt hopes that security forces will not be used for electoral purposes
Ernesto Muyshondt, who is running for re-election in the capital. Photo / courtesy
The current mayor of San Salvador, who is running for re-election, cast his vote in the morning. The mayor said he was confident of winning another term at the helm of the municipality, despite the central government’s blockade of his administration.
The call from the Mayor of San Salvador, Ernesto Muyshondt, was clear. That the police and the armed forces are not used for electoral purposes.
“I hope they don’t use the National Civil Police for electoral purposes. I hope they do not use the armed forces for partisan political ends today. I hope they still respect the results that are already flawed by the fraud they have generated and which has been going on for months, ”said Muyshondt. The mayor warned of the danger of using police and armed forces for electoral purposes.
4. Police warn Ernesto Sanabria
El Salvador’s press secretary for the Presidency, Ernesto Sabria, was reprimanded by the National Civil Police of the Liceo Castilla Bilingual College in Lourdes Colón, La Libertad, when he tried to take a picture of the pellet at the time of the vote.
Assistants from the 4137 Vote Receiving Board, where Sanabria cast her vote, discovered the error and reported it, so PNC agents intervened. The moment was captured in a video circulating on social networks.
5. Bukele calls for votes for new ideas
Bukele called on the population to vote in something he called “Operation Remate”: Photo: @PresidenciaSV
The President of the Republic of Nayib Bukele held a press conference in the afternoon to call on the ruling party to vote in the midst of a period of electoral silence.
After the national chain, he arrived at the edge of 4 in the afternoon to cast his vote on Hipódromo Boulevard with the first lady Gabriela de Bukele.
He made no statements to the press at the polling station.