Preliminary data shows that the New Ideas party would receive a qualified majority. Analyst and academic Óscar Picardo sees the new configuration as a risk, the loss of balance between legislative, executive and judicial powers.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has reviewed 86% of the minutes, preliminary data, updated to 12:30 pm on March 1, shows that Nuevas Ideas has a great advantage over the other parties, both for mayors and the Legislative Assembly .
FOCOS TV’s calculation shows that for the period 2021-2024, the Assembly would consist of 52 delegates from New Ideas, 5 from GANA, 7 from the New Ideas-Gana alliance, 7 from ARENA, 5 from the FMLN and the the other parties would each have one legislator.
The data shows that the government affiliated parties add 64 seats, that is, more than the qualified majority.
You Might Read: New Ideas With Big Advantage In Provisional Elections Counting
The New Ideas (NI) party, which Bukele helped form and which first contested an election, along with the Great National Alliance (Gana), which brought him to power in 2019, together achieved much more than half of the to vote. before Parliament, according to the preliminary control of 86% of the votes cast by the TSE.
The preliminary counting in real time allows the TSE to mark the number of votes each political organization receives.
The official count begins on Tuesday, determining how many of the 84 seats in the Assembly correspond to each party.
With an absolute majority, Bukele will be able to influence appointments to the Supreme Court, Comptroller’s Office and the Public Prosecution Service, with which he has had disputes.
And if it reaches the qualified majority (56 seats), it can also implement reforms, such as constitutional ones.
In addition, “The voters decided to concentrate power in one person,” said FMLN general secretary
The analyst and academic Óscar Picardo predicts a meeting that will only press the button in favor of Bukele and there will not be much discussion, which is a risk.
In a televised interview this Monday, Picardo warned that the change in the number of deputies in the Legislative Assembly could cause a restructuring of the state, which is a risk as the balance between legislative, executive and judicial powers is lost.
“A president strives for a less belligerent meeting. But the risk of having full control of the Assembly because it appoints the Supreme Court (CSJ), the Court of Auditors (CCNR), the Attorney General (FGR) raises a democratic concern that the balance of power is being lost and especially given the The fact that behind New Ideas the figure of a person who is the president rules, not that of a structured political institution with a theoretical, ideological basis, is all Nayib Bukele, ”said Picardo.
According to the TSE census, ARENA and FMLN will be a minority in the new Assembly.
New ideas too won in 16 mayors of the 19 municipalities that San Salvador has the most populous department in the country.
Also: Mario Durán emerges as the winner of the San Salvador Mayor’s Office
For the director of the Jesuit Central American University (UCA) Human Rights Institute, José María Tojeira, the delivery of $ 300 bail to needy families, food and supplies to cope with COVID-19 echoed in a population hit by the pandemic, in a country where external debt reaches 90% of GDP.
On February 9, 2020, Bukele was joined by heavily armed military and police to enter the Legislative Assembly amid the delegates’ refusal to approve a loan for a security plan proposed by his government. This is just one of the actions that Bukele must see by the opposition as authoritarian and disrespectful of democratic norms.