Who are Bukele’s rivals for the elections in El Salvador and what the latest polls reveal

When he won for the first time, at 37 years old Bukele He became the youngest president of The Savior and one of the youngest in Latin America. His anti-corruption speech resonated with the country’s youth, who overwhelmingly supported him.

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Almost two years after the triumph of Bukeleyour party New ideas got control of the legislative Assembly after winning the parliamentary elections.

From that moment on the president gained more power. He dismissed the attorney general and replaced the Supreme Court with new members. These were the ones who finally endorsed his candidacy despite the fact that The Constitution of El Salvador prohibits re-election.

During the management of Bukelethe call “Little Thumb of America” went from being one of the most violent countries in the world to record the lowest homicide rates.

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According to data from the government of Bukele2023 was the safest year in the country’s history, with an average of 0.4 homicides per day. It should be noted that when the president assumed power, in 2019, there was a rate of 7 homicides per day.

The key to this has been its successful war against gangs, applying a heavy-handed policy that has been supported by citizens and that he has promised to continue if he is re-elected. Furthermore, as part of that policy he has built a megaprison to house 40,000 prisonerss. The violent gang members are mixed in that prison. Mara Salvatrucha and Neighborhood 18groups that are enemies and responsible for what in the past The Savior has been listed as having the highest homicide rates in the world.

This policy has also been criticized by international analysts and observers due to the emergence of complaints of human rights violations.

As part of your security strategy, Bukele governs The Savior under a regime of Exception status which has been extended for almost two years.

Under the emergency regime, security forces have detained more than 75,000 people for their alleged links to gangs, according to a report by the human rights organization Cristosal.

As stated in a report cnnthe government of Bukele It has only reported these numbers of detainees through statements from its officials or statements from the Presidency, but since April 2022 it has not allowed access to detailed statistics on crimes such as homicides. He alleges that this information will be kept confidential for seven years.

In Sunday’s elections

The Legislative Assembly will also be renewed, currently dominated by the ruling party and its allies and which will have 60 deputies instead of the current 84 after an electoral reform.

Taking this panorama into account, it is necessary to mention which candidates he will face Bukele in Sunday’s elections:

Manuel Flores

Known as “The Chinese Flowers”, the 58-year-old leftist is a candidate for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). This former guerrilla has been dedicated to politics since the signing of the peace agreements in January 1992.

He has been mayor of the municipality of Quezaltepeque from 2003 to 2012 and deputy of the legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2021.

He studied at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Biology and acquired Nicaraguan citizenship.

His party has pointed out that in The Savior there is a dictatorship. Flowers supports this statement and adds that there is little freedom of expression and political freedom, according to the AP agency.

The candidate has among his proposals the creation of a dignity bonus for older adults with the objective of increasing from $50 to $70 a universal basic pension that the elderly and people with disabilities have received, in addition to increasing the number of beneficiaries from 37,000 to 60,000 .

It is also committed to eradicating hunger, improve agriculture of the country, guarantee the well-being of families, improve the investment climate, among other issues.

He FMLN ruled The Savior between 2009 and 2019.

Joel Sanchez

Candidate for the right-wing party Sand, is a 55-year-old businessman. He has said that he has no political past, but the AP agency points out that he campaigned for Tony Saca for the 2004 presidential elections.

When I was 19 years old. Sanchez He emigrated to the United States, where he held several jobs: he washed dishes, was a cook and a cleaning technician.

Over time, he founded his own company in the cleaning industry, which grew in the United States and opened branches in Mexico and El Salvador.

The AP agency maintains that the movement Citizen Resistance presented him as a civil society candidate and then the party Sand announced that he was the one chosen to compete in the presidential elections.

It should be noted that Sand ruled The Savior for 20 years, from 1989 to 2009.

Luis Parada

He is a 63-year-old politician, former military man and lawyer. As an expert in international litigation, he has defended The Savior in successive complaints against the State before the International Center for Investment Arbitrations of the World Bank (ICSID), those he has won, AP specifies.

He studied at the Captain General Gerardo Barrios military school in El Salvador and at the West Point Military Academy in the United States. He graduated from Georgetown University with a law degree.

In 2019 he tried to be a presidential candidate by participating in the internal elections of Sandbut finally the chosen one was the businessman Carlos Callejas.

Stop He has been a captain in the Salvadoran army and during his 14 years of service he served in different positions in the institution, among them he was head of the Cryptoanalyst section of the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), at a time when an army commando assassinated six Jesuit priests and their two collaborators and was a key witness for justice in the case against the soldiers who carried out that massacre in November 1989, AP recalled.

In February 2020 Stop He resigned his rank of army captain after the entry of armed soldiers into the Salvadoran Congress on February 9, during a meeting called by the president. Bukele.

Stop He assures that he was not seeking the candidacy, but after the request of representatives of a civil organization he agreed to compete under the banner of the conservative party. Our timefounded by Arena dissidents.

Javier Renderos

This 60-year-old gynecologist was a candidate for mayor of the city of San Miguel in 2018. He ran for Arena.

Renderos is now running for the Presidency for the party Solidarity Force.

Marina Murillo

She is an architect who has made a career in public service. She is a party candidate Salvadoran Patriotic Fraternity (FPS) and she is the only woman running for this Sunday’s elections.

Murillo assures that one of the main problems of The Savior is that there are “too many inequalities.” “Before God we are all equal, and women are all very brave,” he maintains.

He has said in the campaign that preventive health must be prioritized by the State, as well as promoting comprehensive health in children.

What do the surveys say?

The public opinion of The Savior is sure that Bukele will win re-election without major problems and will be in power for another five years. Surveys support that perception.

The most recent survey of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA)gives a wide advantage to Bukele. In a simulation using a ballot similar to the one that will be used on February 4, the 81.9% I would vote for him ruling partyhe 4.2% by the leftist Manuel Flores and the 3.4% by Joel Sanchez. Luis Parada appears with 2.5%, Javier Renderos with the 1.1% and Marina Murillo with the 1%. 3% said they would abstain and another 3% said they would annul the vote.